Patent ID: 8168401

Claim:
An in vitro method of detecting a human or monkey cell that is potentially sensitive to sweet tastants, the method comprising: (a) detecting the expression of a T1R2 polypeptide and/or a nucleic acid encoding said T1R2 polypeptide by said human or monkey cell by contacting said human or monkey cell with at least one probe that detects the expression of said T1R2 polypeptide and/or said nucleic acid encoding said T1R2 polypeptide by said human or monkey cell, wherein said T1R2 polypeptide is encoded by a nucleic acid sequence comprising a nucleic acid that hybridizes to SEQ ID NO: 10 under stringent hybridization conditions which are conducting the hybridization reaction at 42° C. in a solution comprising 50% formamide, 5×SSC, and 1% SDS and washing at 65° C. in a solution comprising 0.2×SSC and 0.1% SDS; (b) detecting the expression of a T1R3 polypeptide and/or a nucleic acid encoding said T1R3 polypeptide by said human or monkey cell by contacting said human or monkey cell with at least one probe that detects the expression of said T1R3 polypeptide and/or said nucleic acid encoding said T1R3 polypeptide by said human or monkey cell, wherein said T1R3 polypeptide is encoded by a nucleic acid sequence comprising a nucleic acid that hybridizes to SEQ ID NO: 9 under stringent hybridization conditions which are conducting the hybridization reaction at 42° C. in a solution comprising 50% formamide, 5×SSC, and 1% SDS and washing at 65° C. in a solution comprising 0.2×SSC and 0.1% SDS; and (c) based on the results of (a) and (b), identifying a cell that is detected to express T1R2 and T1R3 as a cell that is potentially sensitive to sweet tastants (“detected cell”).