Patent ID: 7601883

Claim:
A method of detecting a behavior or physiological response modulated by a human polycystin-2L1 polypeptide, comprising: (a) obtaining a transgenic mouse which lacks endogenous polycystin-2L1 polypeptide expression and whose genome comprises a DNA sequence encoding a heterologous human polycystin-2L1 polypeptide operatively linked to a promoter in a taste bud of the transgenic mouse or in a neuron of the transgenic mouse in contact with the cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) of the transgenic mouse; (b) providing a putative tastant or modulator of the heterologous human polycystin-2L1 polypeptide to the transgenic mouse and a control mouse; and (c) monitoring the behavior or physiological response of the transgenic mouse in response to the presence of the putative tastant or modulator, wherein said response is compared to a response of a control mouse to the putative tastant or modulator, wherein the control mouse does not express the heterologous human polycystin-2L1 polypeptide in the taste bud and in a neuron in contact with CSF of the control mouse.