TAS2R31

Summary

TAS2R31 (taste 2 receptor member 31, HGNC:19113) is a protein-coding gene on chromosome 12p13.2, encoding Taste receptor type 2 member 31 (P59538). Receptor that may play a role in the perception of bitterness and is gustducin-linked.

TAS2R44 belongs to the large TAS2R receptor family. TAS2Rs are expressed on the surface of taste receptor cells and mediate the perception of bitterness through a G protein-coupled second messenger pathway (Conte et al., 2002 [PubMed 12584440]). For further information on TAS2Rs, see MIM 604791.

Source: NCBI Gene 259290 — RefSeq curated summary.

At a glance

• GWAS associations: 1
• Clinical variants (ClinVar): 2 total
• Druggable target: yes — 1 molecules with ChEMBL bioactivity
• MANE Select transcript: NM_176885

Identifiers

Gene identifiers

Field	Value
HGNC ID	HGNC:19113
Approved symbol	TAS2R31
Name	taste 2 receptor member 31
Location	12p13.2
Locus type	gene with protein product
Status	Approved
Aliases	T2R31, T2R53
Ensembl gene	ENSG00000256436
Ensembl biotype	protein_coding
OMIM	612669
Entrez	259290

Gene structure

Transcript identifiers

Ensembl transcripts: 1 — 1 protein_coding

ENST00000390675

RefSeq mRNA: 1 — MANE Select: NM_176885 NM_176885

CCDS: CCDS53747

Canonical transcript exons

ENST00000390675 — 1 exons

Exon	Start	End
ENSE00001508593	11030387	11031407

Expression profiles

Bgee: expression breadth ubiquitous, 128 present calls, max score 91.58.

Top tissues by expression

132 total, by Bgee expression score (0-100, higher = more expressed):

Tissue	Anatomy ID	Expression score	Quality
male germ line stem cell (sensu Vertebrata) in testis	CL:0000089 ∩ UBERON:0000473	91.58	gold quality
adrenal tissue	UBERON:0018303	74.23	gold quality
corpus callosum	UBERON:0002336	71.83	gold quality
calcaneal tendon	UBERON:0003701	66.58	gold quality
bone marrow cell	CL:0002092	61.86	silver quality
tonsil	UBERON:0002372	59.93	silver quality
colonic epithelium	UBERON:0000397	58.96	gold quality
endometrium	UBERON:0001295	58.57	gold quality
stromal cell of endometrium	CL:0002255	58.05	gold quality
left ovary	UBERON:0002119	57.21	gold quality
ovary	UBERON:0000992	56.83	gold quality
mucosa of stomach	UBERON:0001199	55.82	gold quality
right ovary	UBERON:0002118	54.99	gold quality
tibial nerve	UBERON:0001323	54.37	gold quality
uterine cervix	UBERON:0000002	52.99	gold quality
popliteal artery	UBERON:0002250	52.90	gold quality
tibial artery	UBERON:0007610	52.89	gold quality
hindlimb stylopod muscle	UBERON:0004252	52.84	gold quality
body of uterus	UBERON:0009853	52.70	gold quality
bone marrow	UBERON:0002371	52.47	silver quality
lung	UBERON:0002048	51.62	gold quality
myometrium	UBERON:0001296	51.54	gold quality
subcutaneous adipose tissue	UBERON:0002190	51.43	gold quality
endocervix	UBERON:0000458	51.31	gold quality
skeletal muscle tissue	UBERON:0001134	51.08	silver quality
right uterine tube	UBERON:0001302	51.04	gold quality
cortical plate	UBERON:0005343	50.86	gold quality
esophagogastric junction muscularis propria	UBERON:0035841	50.75	gold quality
urinary bladder	UBERON:0001255	50.66	gold quality
smooth muscle tissue	UBERON:0001135	50.54	gold quality

Single-cell (SCXA)

Detected in 1 experiment(s), a significant marker in 0.

Experiment	Marker?	Max mean expression
E-ANND-3	no	0.00

Regulation

Is transcription factor: no

Literature-anchored findings (GeneRIF, showing 6)

• Activation by denatonium and 6-nitrosaccharin. (PMID:15337684)
• hTAS2R43 and hTAS2R44 function as cognate bitter taste receptors and do not contribute to the sweet taste of saccharin and acesulfame K. (PMID:15537898)
• hT2R43 gene allele makes people more sensitive to the bitterness of an artificial sweetener, saccharin; in addition, a closely related gene’s (hT2R44’s) allele also makes people more sensitive to the bitterness of saccharin. (PMID:17702579)
• Haplotype analyses revealed that most associations were spurious, arising from LD with variants in TAS2R31. (PMID:21672920)
• Genotypes for the Val240Ile (rs10772423) SNP in TAS2R31 remains significant at a Bonferroni corrected alpha of 0.025. (PMID:26024668)
• Results show that NNS-sweetened products with acesulfame potassium (Ace-K) were consumed by 50% and 15% of mothers and children, respectively, with no association between intake and TAS2R31. The TAS2R31 WMVI haplotype was partly responsible for children’s hedonic response to Ace-K, highlighting a potential role for inborn differences in vulnerability to overconsumption of Ace-K-containing products. (PMID:27966661)

Cross-species orthologs

4 orthologs

Organism	Symbol	Gene ID
mus_musculus	Tas2r136	ENSMUSG00000053217
mus_musculus	Tas2r120	ENSMUSG00000059382
rattus_norvegicus	Tas2r120	ENSRNOG00000021445
rattus_norvegicus	Tas2r136	ENSRNOG00000029561

Paralogs (23): TAS2R8 (ENSG00000121314), TAS2R10 (ENSG00000121318), TAS2R7 (ENSG00000121377), TAS2R9 (ENSG00000121381), TAS2R3 (ENSG00000127362), TAS2R4 (ENSG00000127364), TAS2R5 (ENSG00000127366), TAS2R16 (ENSG00000128519), TAS2R1 (ENSG00000169777), TAS2R60 (ENSG00000185899), TAS2R42 (ENSG00000186136), TAS2R19 (ENSG00000212124), TAS2R50 (ENSG00000212126), TAS2R14 (ENSG00000212127), TAS2R13 (ENSG00000212128), TAS2R41 (ENSG00000221855), TAS2R40 (ENSG00000221937), TAS2R46 (ENSG00000226761), TAS2R39 (ENSG00000236398), TAS2R43 (ENSG00000255374), TAS2R20 (ENSG00000255837), TAS2R30 (ENSG00000256188), TAS2R38 (ENSG00000257138)

Protein

Protein identifiers

Taste receptor type 2 member 31 — P59538 (reviewed: P59538)

Alternative names: Taste receptor type 2 member 44, Taste receptor type 2 member 53

All UniProt accessions (1): P59538

UniProt curated annotations — full annotation on UniProt →

Function. Receptor that may play a role in the perception of bitterness and is gustducin-linked. May play a role in sensing the chemical composition of the gastrointestinal content. The activity of this receptor may stimulate alpha gustducin, mediate PLC-beta-2 activation and lead to the gating of TRPM5. Activated by the sulfonyl amide sweeteners saccharin and acesulfame K.

Subcellular location. Membrane.

Tissue specificity. Expressed in subsets of taste receptor cells of the tongue and exclusively in gustducin-positive cells.

Miscellaneous. Most taste cells may be activated by a limited number of bitter compounds; individual taste cells can discriminate among bitter stimuli.

Similarity. Belongs to the G-protein coupled receptor T2R family.

RefSeq proteins (1): NP_795366* (*=MANE)

Domains & families (InterPro)

ID	Name	Type
IPR007960	TAS2R	Family

Pfam: PF05296

UniProt features (23 total): topological domain 8, transmembrane region 7, sequence variant 6, chain 1, glycosylation site 1

Structure

Experimental structures (PDB)

0 structures.

Predicted structure (AlphaFold)

Model	pLDDT	Fraction very-high
AF-P59538-F1	87.63	0.56

Functional residue map

Curated UniProt residues grouped by drug-discovery relevance — catalytic, ligand-binding, modification, and mutation-validated positions. Source: UniProtKB sequence features.

Glycosylation sites (1): 161

Function

Pathways and Gene Ontology

Reactome pathways

9 pathways

ID	Pathway
R-HSA-418594	G alpha (i) signalling events
R-HSA-420499	Class C/3 (Metabotropic glutamate/pheromone receptors)
R-HSA-9717207	Sensory perception of sweet, bitter, and umami (glutamate) taste
R-HSA-162582	Signal Transduction
R-HSA-372790	Signaling by GPCR
R-HSA-388396	GPCR downstream signalling
R-HSA-500792	GPCR ligand binding
R-HSA-9709957	Sensory Perception
R-HSA-9717189	Sensory perception of taste

MSigDB gene sets: 24 (showing top): GOBP_SENSORY_PERCEPTION_OF_CHEMICAL_STIMULUS, GOBP_DETECTION_OF_CHEMICAL_STIMULUS_INVOLVED_IN_SENSORY_PERCEPTION_OF_TASTE, GOBP_SENSORY_PERCEPTION_OF_TASTE, GOBP_DETECTION_OF_STIMULUS, GOBP_SENSORY_PERCEPTION, GOMF_TRANSMEMBRANE_SIGNALING_RECEPTOR_ACTIVITY, GOMF_BITTER_TASTE_RECEPTOR_ACTIVITY, GOMF_TASTE_RECEPTOR_ACTIVITY, GOMF_G_PROTEIN_COUPLED_RECEPTOR_ACTIVITY, GOBP_G_PROTEIN_COUPLED_RECEPTOR_SIGNALING_PATHWAY, GOBP_DETECTION_OF_STIMULUS_INVOLVED_IN_SENSORY_PERCEPTION, GOBP_SENSORY_PERCEPTION_OF_BITTER_TASTE, ZWANG_DOWN_BY_2ND_EGF_PULSE, REACTOME_SENSORY_PERCEPTION, REACTOME_SENSORY_PERCEPTION_OF_TASTE

GO Biological Process (4): detection of chemical stimulus involved in sensory perception of bitter taste (GO:0001580), signal transduction (GO:0007165), G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway (GO:0007186), sensory perception of taste (GO:0050909)

GO Molecular Function (2): G protein-coupled receptor activity (GO:0004930), bitter taste receptor activity (GO:0033038)

GO Cellular Component (2): plasma membrane (GO:0005886), membrane (GO:0016020)

Reactome top-level categories

Rollup of top-6 pathways:

Category	Pathways
Signaling by GPCR	2
GPCR downstream signalling	1
GPCR ligand binding	1
Sensory perception of taste	1
Signal Transduction	1
Sensory Perception	1

GO top-level categories

Rollup of top GO terms by namespace:

Category	Terms
detection of chemical stimulus involved in sensory perception of taste	1
sensory perception of bitter taste	1
cell communication	1
cellular process	1
signaling	1
regulation of cellular process	1
cellular response to stimulus	1
G protein-coupled receptor activity	1
signal transduction	1
sensory perception of chemical stimulus	1
transmembrane signaling receptor activity	1
G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway	1
detection of chemical stimulus involved in sensory perception of bitter taste	1
taste receptor activity	1
membrane	1
cell periphery	1
cellular anatomical structure	1

Protein interactions and networks

STRING

306 interactions, top by confidence (×1000):

Protein A	Protein B	Partner UniProt	Score
TAS2R31	GNAT3	A8MTJ3	770
TAS2R31	PLCB2	Q00722	726
TAS2R31	TAS1R2	Q8TE23	513
TAS2R31	TAS1R3	Q7RTX0	507
TAS2R31	OR52K2	Q8NGK3	479
TAS2R31	TAS1R1	Q7RTX1	477
TAS2R31	OR52B6	Q8NGF0	473
TAS2R31	OR5A2	Q8NGI9	446
TAS2R31	ANKRD20A4P	Q4UJ75	400
TAS2R31	VN1R4	Q7Z5H5	378
TAS2R31	PKD2L1	Q9P0L9	374
TAS2R31	OR51A4	Q8NGJ6	370
TAS2R31	OR10A2	Q9H208	367
TAS2R31	OR4F4	Q96R69	365
TAS2R31	VN1R2	Q8NFZ6	356

IntAct

3 interactions, top by confidence:

A	B	Type	Score
TAS2R31	CAV2	psi-mi:“MI:0915”(physical association)	0.400
TAS2R31	TPP2	psi-mi:“MI:0914”(association)	0.350

BioGRID (6): TAS2R31 (Affinity Capture-MS), PACSIN2 (Affinity Capture-MS), TPP2 (Affinity Capture-MS), MTMR4 (Affinity Capture-MS), MAP1A (Affinity Capture-MS), CAV2 (Affinity Capture-MS)

ESM2 similar proteins: P0DSN6, P0DTE0, P59537, P59538, P59539, P59540, P59541, P59542, P59543, P59544, Q5Y4Y8, Q5Y4Y9, Q5Y4Z5, Q5Y4Z8, Q5Y500, Q645T2, Q645T3, Q645T4, Q645T6, Q645V2, Q645V3, Q645V4, Q645V6, Q645V7, Q645Z2, Q645Z6, Q645Z7, Q645Z9, Q646A0, Q646A1, Q646B4, Q646B9, Q646C0, Q646C1, Q646C2, Q646C3, Q646E0, Q646E1, Q646E2, Q646E3

Diamond homologs: P0DSN6, P0DTE0, P59528, P59530, P59537, P59538, P59539, P59540, P59541, P59542, P59543, P59544, Q5Y4Y8, Q5Y4Y9, Q5Y4Z5, Q5Y4Z8, Q5Y500, Q645T0, Q645T2, Q645T3, Q645T4, Q645T6, Q645T7, Q645U8, Q645V1, Q645V2, Q645V3, Q645V4, Q645V6, Q645V7, Q645V8, Q645V9, Q645Z2, Q645Z5, Q645Z6, Q645Z7, Q645Z9, Q646A0, Q646A1, Q646A2

SIGNOR signaling

0 interactions.

Disease & clinical

Clinical variants and AI predictions

ClinVar

2 variants total. Per-class counts are floors (≥ shown; pagination cap):

Classification	Count (floor)
Pathogenic	0
Likely pathogenic	0
Uncertain significance	2
Likely benign	0
Benign	0

Top pathogenic / likely-pathogenic (0)

SpliceAI

449 predictions. Top by Δscore:

Variant	Effect	Δscore
12:11030459:C:CC	acceptor_gain	0.7900
12:11030741:T:TC	acceptor_gain	0.7800
12:11030728:C:CT	acceptor_gain	0.7100
12:11030746:A:T	acceptor_gain	0.6900
12:11030725:T:TC	acceptor_gain	0.6800
12:11030598:CAT:C	acceptor_gain	0.6600
12:11030730:C:CT	acceptor_gain	0.6600
12:11030731:A:T	acceptor_gain	0.6500
12:11030624:A:C	acceptor_gain	0.6300
12:11030627:A:C	donor_gain	0.6300
12:11030968:CT:C	acceptor_gain	0.6300
12:11030721:A:C	acceptor_gain	0.6200
12:11030898:C:CT	acceptor_gain	0.6200
12:11030965:CTCCT:C	acceptor_gain	0.6200
12:11031391:T:A	donor_gain	0.6200
12:11030737:C:CT	acceptor_gain	0.6100
12:11030741:T:C	acceptor_gain	0.6100
12:11030759:G:C	donor_gain	0.6100
12:11030454:CAAAA:C	acceptor_gain	0.6000
12:11030970:C:CC	acceptor_gain	0.6000
12:11030600:T:TC	acceptor_gain	0.5900
12:11030937:CAGCA:C	donor_gain	0.5900
12:11030966:T:A	donor_gain	0.5900
12:11031379:T:TA	donor_gain	0.5900
12:11030591:C:CC	acceptor_gain	0.5800
12:11030577:C:CA	donor_gain	0.5700
12:11030711:TCTTC:T	acceptor_gain	0.5700
12:11030738:A:T	acceptor_gain	0.5700
12:11030890:A:C	acceptor_gain	0.5700
12:11031364:AATG:A	donor_gain	0.5700

AlphaMissense

2015 scored. Top likely-pathogenic:

Variant	Protein change	am_pathogenicity
12:11030982:A:C	F118L	0.851
12:11030982:A:T	F118L	0.851
12:11030984:A:G	F118L	0.851
12:11031258:G:C	F26L	0.824
12:11031258:G:T	F26L	0.824
12:11031260:A:G	F26L	0.824
12:11031027:G:C	S103R	0.782
12:11031027:G:T	S103R	0.782
12:11031029:T:G	S103R	0.782
12:11031033:G:C	S101R	0.773
12:11031033:G:T	S101R	0.773
12:11031035:T:G	S101R	0.773
12:11031051:G:C	S95R	0.747
12:11031051:G:T	S95R	0.747
12:11031053:T:G	S95R	0.747
12:11030997:G:C	F113L	0.744
12:11030997:G:T	F113L	0.744
12:11030999:A:G	F113L	0.744
12:11031285:A:C	F17L	0.740
12:11031285:A:T	F17L	0.740
12:11031287:A:G	F17L	0.740
12:11030756:A:G	C194R	0.714
12:11030526:G:C	S270R	0.699
12:11030526:G:T	S270R	0.699
12:11030528:T:G	S270R	0.699
12:11031158:A:G	W60R	0.699
12:11031158:A:T	W60R	0.699
12:11031303:A:C	S11R	0.699
12:11031303:A:T	S11R	0.699
12:11031305:T:G	S11R	0.699

dbSNP variants (sampled 300 via entrez): RS1001219684 (12:11033023 G>A), RS1003543966 (12:11031563 T>G), RS1003962171 (12:11031749 G>A), RS1004212888 (12:11032016 G>A), RS1004329031 (12:11031780 T>C,G), RS1005066939 (12:11033071 C>T), RS1008510201 (12:11032101 C>A), RS1011810992 (12:11032732 G>A), RS1012474678 (12:11030172 A>C), RS1012811715 (12:11031540 G>A,C), RS1014675803 (12:11033073 C>G,T), RS1017021997 (12:11031781 G>A), RS1018025444 (12:11030517 T>C,G), RS1021823600 (12:11032773 A>G), RS1024571955 (12:11029963 C>T)

Disease associations

OMIM: gene MIM:612669 | disease phenotypes:

GenCC curated gene-disease

Mondo (0):

Orphanet (0):

HPO phenotypes

0 total (0 of 0 shown, HPO-id order):

GWAS associations

1 associations (top):

Study	Trait	p-value
GCST002144_2	Bitter taste perception	2.000000e-19

Drugs & pharmacology

Drug and pharmacology data

Is drug target: yes

ChEMBL targets (1): CHEMBL2034804 (SINGLE PROTEIN)

Molecules with ChEMBL bioactivity

1 molecules (phase ≥1), by development phase (incl. off-target/promiscuous compounds). Patent mentions across the top 20 by phase: 40,234 (via chembl_molecule»patent_compound — counts attach to the compound, not the gene–compound relationship, so off-target/promiscuous molecules can dominate).

Molecule	Name	Phase	Patents
CHEMBL434	ISOPROTERENOL	4	40,234

PharmGKB: 1 entry (VIP=true, CPIC=false)

GtoPdb / IUPHAR curated pharmacology

(IUPHAR/BPS Guide to Pharmacology — expert-curated)

Target class: gpcr — Taste 2 receptors

Most potent curated ligand interactions (6 total), top 6:

Ligand	Action	Affinity	Parameter
aristolochic acid	Agonist	6.35	pEC50
GIV3727	Antagonist	5.46	pIC50
sakuranetin	Antagonist	5.26	pIC50
saccharin	Agonist	2.96	pEC50
acesulfame	Agonist	2.6	pEC50
cyclamate	Antagonist	1.79	pIC50

ChEMBL bioactivities

5 potent at pChembl≥5 of 8 total, top 5 by pChembl (potency: 10 = 0.1 nM, 6 = 1 µM).

pChembl	Type	Value	Unit	Molecule
8.31	EC50	4.9	nM	ISOPROTERENOL
5.70	IC50	2000	nM	CHEMBL490162
5.60	IC50	2500	nM	CHEMBL210692
5.44	IC50	3600	nM	SAKURANETIN
5.10	IC50	8000	nM	CHEMBL3315351

PubChem BioAssay actives

4 with measured affinity, of 10 total; 4 most potent distinct compounds. Largely complementary to BindingDB; screening values are coarse (µM, 4 dp), so sub-nM hits tie at the floor.

Compound	Assay	Type	Value	Unit
[4-[(2S)-5,7-dihydroxy-4-oxo-2,3-dihydrochromen-2-yl]-2-methoxyphenyl] 2-methylpropanoate	663967: Inhibition of human TAS2R31 receptor expressed in HEK293T cells overexpressing chimeric G-protein alpha-subunit	ic50	2.0000	uM
(2S)-5-hydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-6,7-dimethoxy-2,3-dihydrochromen-4-one	663967: Inhibition of human TAS2R31 receptor expressed in HEK293T cells overexpressing chimeric G-protein alpha-subunit	ic50	2.5000	uM
(2S)-5-hydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-7-methoxy-2,3-dihydrochromen-4-one	663967: Inhibition of human TAS2R31 receptor expressed in HEK293T cells overexpressing chimeric G-protein alpha-subunit	ic50	3.6000	uM
(E)-5-[(1S,4aR,6S,8aR)-6-acetyloxy-5,5,8a-trimethyl-2-methylidene-3,4,4a,6,7,8-hexahydro-1H-naphthalen-1-yl]-3-methylpent-2-enoic acid	1182329: Antagonist activity at human TAS2R31 expressed in HEK-293T cells stably expressing Galpha16gust44 assessed as inhibition receptor response to saccharin by fluorescence assay	ic50	8.0000	uM

CTD chemical–gene interactions

15 total (human), top 15 by PubMed support.

Chemical	Actions (top 5)	PubMed papers
bisphenol A	affects cotreatment, decreases expression	1
jinfukang	increases expression, affects cotreatment	1
MT19c compound	increases expression	1
Arsenic	affects methylation	1
Cisplatin	affects cotreatment, increases expression	1
Dexamethasone	affects cotreatment, decreases expression	1
Hydrogen Peroxide	decreases expression	1
Indomethacin	affects cotreatment, decreases expression	1
Oxygen	increases expression	1
Saccharin	increases activity	1
1-Methyl-3-isobutylxanthine	affects cotreatment, decreases expression	1
Cyclosporine	increases methylation	1
Aflatoxin B1	decreases methylation	1
Sodium Selenite	decreases expression	1
Copper Sulfate	increases expression	1

ChEMBL screening assays

71 unique, capped per target: 69 functional, 2 binding

Representative assays (with source publication via chembl_document):

Assay ID	Type	Description	Source paper
CHEMBL2039382	Binding	Inhibition of human TAS2R31 receptor expressed in HEK293T cells overexpressing chimeric G-protein alpha-subunit	The relevance of higher plants in lead compound discovery programs. — J Nat Prod
CHEMBL4346433	Functional	Antagonist activity at recombinant human TAS2R31 transiently expressed in HEK293T co-expressing Galpha16gust44 assessed as inhibition of aristolochic acid-induced intracellular calcium level by measuring remaining activity at 25 uM by fluo-	Discovery and Development of S6821 and S7958 as Potent TAS2R8 Antagonists. — J Med Chem

Clinical trials (associated diseases)

0 trials via MONDO — disease-level, not drug-specific.