Patent ID: 7927823

Claim:
A method of identifying a compound that putatively enhances, inhibits, or elicits T1R3 receptor associated taste in a human subject comprising (i) screening one or more compounds in a screening assay which identifies compounds that specifically bind to or inhibit the specific binding of a ligand to a chimeric taste receptor polypeptide and (ii) identifying a compound as putatively enhancing, inhibiting or eliciting T1R3 associated taste in a human subject based on its specific binding to a taste receptor comprising a chimeric taste receptor polypeptide or its modulation (inhibition or enhancement) of the specific binding of another ligand to a chimeric taste receptor polypeptide wherein said chimeric taste receptor polypeptide contains an extracellular and a transmembrane region, and said taste receptor comprising said chimeric GPCR polypeptide specifically binds or functionally responds to taste ligands that specifically bind or modulate the activity of a human taste receptor comprising an endogenous human T1R3 polypeptide, wherein said endogenous human T1R3 polypeptide is a human taste receptor polypeptide that is encoded by an endogenous human nucleic acid sequence that specifically hybridizes under stringent binding conditions to the complement of the genomic sequence of SEQ ID NO:20, wherein said stringent hybridization conditions are defined as 50% formamide, 5×SSC, and 1% SDS; and washing at 65 degrees C. in a solution containing 0.2×SSC and 0.1% SDS and wherein the extracellular region of said chimeric GPCR polypeptide is at least 90% identical to the extracellular region of an endogenous human T1R3 polypeptide that is encoded by a human nucleic acid sequence that specifically hybridizes under said defined stringent binding conditions to the complement of the genomic sequence of SEQ ID NO:20 or is at least 90% identical to the extracellular region of the human T1R3 polypeptide in SEQ ID NO:4 and the transmembrane region of said chimeric GPCR polypeptide is at least 90% identical to that of a GPCR other than said endogenous human T1R3 polypeptide and wherein said taste receptor comprising said chimeric GPCR polypeptide specifically binds or functionally responds to taste ligands that specifically bind or modulate the activity of an endogenous human taste receptor comprising said endogenous human T1R3 polypeptide that is encoded by a human endogenous nucleic acid sequence that specifically hybridizes under said defined stringent binding conditions to the complement of the genomic sequence of SEQ ID NO:20.