TAS2R42

Summary

TAS2R42 (taste 2 receptor member 42, HGNC:18888) is a protein-coding gene on chromosome 12p13.2, encoding Taste receptor type 2 member 42 (Q7RTR8). Receptor that may play a role in the perception of bitterness and is gustducin-linked.

Predicted to enable G protein-coupled receptor activity and bitter taste receptor activity. Predicted to be involved in G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway and detection of chemical stimulus involved in sensory perception of bitter taste. Located in membrane.

Source: NCBI Gene 353164 — RefSeq curated summary.

At a glance

• GWAS associations: 2
• Clinical variants (ClinVar): 37 total
• Druggable target: yes — 1 molecules with ChEMBL bioactivity
• MANE Select transcript: NM_181429

Identifiers

Gene identifiers

Field	Value
HGNC ID	HGNC:18888
Approved symbol	TAS2R42
Name	taste 2 receptor member 42
Location	12p13.2
Locus type	gene with protein product
Status	Approved
Aliases	T2R24, T2R55, hT2R55, TAS2R55
Ensembl gene	ENSG00000186136
Ensembl biotype	protein_coding
OMIM	613966
Entrez	353164

Gene structure

Transcript identifiers

Ensembl transcripts: 1 — 1 protein_coding

ENST00000334266

RefSeq mRNA: 1 — MANE Select: NM_181429 NM_181429

CCDS: CCDS31747

Canonical transcript exons

ENST00000334266 — 1 exons

Exon	Start	End
ENSE00001340074	11185993	11186937

Expression profiles

Bgee: expression breadth broad, 13 present calls, max score 87.55.

Top tissues by expression

82 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	87.55	gold quality
bone marrow cell	CL:0002092	48.45	gold quality
tonsil	UBERON:0002372	44.19	silver quality
superior frontal gyrus	UBERON:0002661	41.98	silver quality
cortical plate	UBERON:0005343	40.67	gold quality
ganglionic eminence	UBERON:0004023	39.75	gold quality
granulocyte	CL:0000094	38.03	gold quality
bone marrow	UBERON:0002371	38.02	gold quality
colonic epithelium	UBERON:0000397	37.20	gold quality
ventricular zone	UBERON:0003053	36.48	gold quality
cortex of kidney	UBERON:0001225	35.45	silver quality
skeletal muscle tissue	UBERON:0001134	35.14	gold quality
monocyte	CL:0000576	35.05	silver quality
leukocyte	CL:0000738	34.99	silver quality
endometrium	UBERON:0001295	34.46	gold quality
duodenum	UBERON:0002114	33.58	silver quality
cerebellar hemisphere	UBERON:0002245	32.83	gold quality
cerebellar cortex	UBERON:0002129	32.82	gold quality
cerebellum	UBERON:0002037	32.69	gold quality
muscle tissue	UBERON:0002385	32.36	gold quality
lymph node	UBERON:0000029	32.23	silver quality
hindlimb stylopod muscle	UBERON:0004252	32.15	gold quality
prefrontal cortex	UBERON:0000451	31.53	gold quality
blood	UBERON:0000178	30.58	gold quality
right hemisphere of cerebellum	UBERON:0014890	30.21	gold quality
left adrenal gland	UBERON:0001234	30.08	gold quality
vermiform appendix	UBERON:0001154	29.93	silver quality
fundus of stomach	UBERON:0001160	29.91	gold quality
calcaneal tendon	UBERON:0003701	29.91	gold quality
stromal cell of endometrium	CL:0002255	29.87	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 2)

• Our results show that the expression rate of some of the T2R taste receptor genes was increased significantly in patients with phantogeusia. (PMID:22397221)
• Further studies revealed that TAS2R41 is a ‘specialist’ receptor highly selective for this antibiotic. (PMID:23632330)

Cross-species orthologs

2 orthologs

Organism	Symbol	Gene ID
mus_musculus	Tas2r131	ENSMUSG00000057699
rattus_norvegicus	Tas2r145	ENSRNOG00000037036

Paralogs (23): TAS2R8 (ENSG00000121314), TAS2R10 (ENSG00000121318), TAS2R7 (ENSG00000121377), TAS2R9 (ENSG00000121381), TAS2R3 (ENSG00000127362), TAS2R4 (ENSG00000127364), TAS2R5 (ENSG00000127366), TAS2R16 (ENSG00000128519), TAS2R1 (ENSG00000169777), TAS2R60 (ENSG00000185899), TAS2R19 (ENSG00000212124), TAS2R50 (ENSG00000212126), TAS2R14 (ENSG00000212127), TAS2R13 (ENSG00000212128), TAS2R41 (ENSG00000221855), TAS2R40 (ENSG00000221937), TAS2R46 (ENSG00000226761), TAS2R39 (ENSG00000236398), TAS2R43 (ENSG00000255374), TAS2R20 (ENSG00000255837), TAS2R30 (ENSG00000256188), TAS2R31 (ENSG00000256436), TAS2R38 (ENSG00000257138)

Protein

Protein identifiers

Taste receptor type 2 member 42 — Q7RTR8 (reviewed: Q7RTR8)

Alternative names: Taste receptor type 2 member 55

All UniProt accessions (1): Q7RTR8

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.

Subcellular location. Membrane.

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_852094* (*=MANE)

Domains & families (InterPro)

ID	Name	Type
IPR007960	TAS2R	Family
IPR017452	GPCR_Rhodpsn_7TM	Domain

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-Q7RTR8-F1	80.73	0.19

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): 163

Function

Pathways and Gene Ontology

Reactome pathways

6 pathways

ID	Pathway
R-HSA-418594	G alpha (i) signalling events
R-HSA-420499	Class C/3 (Metabotropic glutamate/pheromone receptors)
R-HSA-162582	Signal Transduction
R-HSA-372790	Signaling by GPCR
R-HSA-388396	GPCR downstream signalling
R-HSA-500792	GPCR ligand binding

MSigDB gene sets: 23 (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, HMGA1_TARGET_GENES, ZFHX3_TARGET_GENES, GOBP_DETECTION_OF_CHEMICAL_STIMULUS

GO Biological Process (3): sensory perception of taste (GO:0050909), signal transduction (GO:0007165), G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway (GO:0007186)

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-4 pathways:

Category	Pathways
Signaling by GPCR	2
GPCR downstream signalling	1
GPCR ligand binding	1
Signal Transduction	1

GO top-level categories

Rollup of top GO terms by namespace:

Category	Terms
sensory perception of chemical stimulus	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
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

408 interactions, top by confidence (×1000):

Protein A	Protein B	Partner UniProt	Score
TAS2R42	TAS1R2	Q8TE23	640
TAS2R42	TAS1R1	Q7RTX1	595
TAS2R42	TAS1R3	Q7RTX0	573
TAS2R42	PKD1L3	Q7Z443	572
TAS2R42	PKD2L1	Q9P0L9	562
TAS2R42	GPRC6A	Q5T6X5	505
TAS2R42	RTP3	Q9BQQ7	456
TAS2R42	CASR	P41180	430
TAS2R42	GNAT3	A8MTJ3	429
TAS2R42	OR5H6	Q8NGV6	417
TAS2R42	OR52A5	Q9H2C5	417
TAS2R42	INSL5	Q9Y5Q6	413
TAS2R42	SCNN1D	P51172	410
TAS2R42	HCN4	Q9Y3Q4	406
TAS2R42	TMEM229A	B2RXF0	403

IntAct

2 interactions, top by confidence:

A	B	Type	Score
TAS2R42	RBM6	psi-mi:“MI:0914”(association)	0.350

ESM2 similar proteins: P59528, P59530, Q5Y4Z2, Q645T9, Q645U9, Q645V1, Q645Y5, Q645Z3, Q645Z5, Q646A7, Q646B6, Q646B8, Q646C6, Q646D2, Q646D8, Q646D9, Q646F7, Q646G3, Q646G5, Q675B7, Q675B8, Q675B9, Q675C0, Q67ER8, Q67ES1, Q67ES5, Q67ES6, Q67ES9, Q67ET3, Q67ET5, Q7M707, Q7M711, Q7M712, Q7M713, Q7M715, Q7M717, Q7M718, Q7M720, Q7M725, Q7RTR8

Diamond homologs: P0DSN6, P59528, P59530, P59537, P59540, P59542, P59543, Q5Y4Y9, Q5Y4Z2, Q5Y4Z5, Q5Y4Z8, Q5Y500, Q645T0, Q645T2, Q645T3, Q645T7, Q645T9, Q645U2, Q645U8, Q645U9, Q645V0, Q645V1, Q645V3, Q645V8, Q645V9, Q645Y5, Q645Z2, Q645Z3, Q645Z4, Q645Z5, Q645Z9, Q646A2, Q646A3, Q646A7, Q646B4, Q646B5, Q646B6, Q646B7, Q646B8, Q646B9

SIGNOR signaling

0 interactions.

Disease & clinical

Clinical variants and AI predictions

ClinVar

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

Classification	Count (floor)
Pathogenic	0
Likely pathogenic	0
Uncertain significance	34
Likely benign	3
Benign	0

Top pathogenic / likely-pathogenic (0)

SpliceAI

166 predictions. Top by Δscore:

Variant	Effect	Δscore
12:11186318:A:T	acceptor_gain	0.8000
12:11186185:T:C	acceptor_gain	0.7700
12:11186317:C:CT	acceptor_gain	0.7500
12:11186753:A:AC	donor_gain	0.7400
12:11186749:CAGTA:C	donor_gain	0.6900
12:11186182:CACT:C	acceptor_gain	0.6800
12:11186868:T:A	donor_gain	0.6700
12:11186185:T:TC	acceptor_gain	0.6200
12:11186347:C:CT	acceptor_gain	0.6100
12:11186080:C:CT	acceptor_gain	0.6000
12:11186181:CCACT:C	acceptor_gain	0.5900
12:11186080:C:T	acceptor_gain	0.5600
12:11186815:G:GT	donor_gain	0.5500
12:11186081:A:T	acceptor_gain	0.5300
12:11186843:CAGT:C	donor_gain	0.5300
12:11186813:A:AC	donor_gain	0.5200
12:11186846:T:C	donor_gain	0.5100
12:11186852:A:T	donor_gain	0.5000
12:11186317:C:T	acceptor_gain	0.4800
12:11186156:C:CT	acceptor_gain	0.4700
12:11186546:A:C	donor_gain	0.4600
12:11186205:C:CC	acceptor_gain	0.4500
12:11186348:A:T	acceptor_gain	0.4400
12:11186314:C:CT	acceptor_gain	0.4300
12:11186328:A:AC	acceptor_gain	0.4300
12:11186851:CAG:C	donor_gain	0.4300
12:11186760:A:AC	donor_gain	0.4200
12:11186761:C:CC	donor_gain	0.4200
12:11186833:C:A	donor_gain	0.4200
12:11186308:A:C	acceptor_gain	0.4100

AlphaMissense

2084 scored. Top likely-pathogenic:

dbSNP variants (sampled 300 via entrez): RS1001178720 (12:11186833 C>A,G,T), RS1001491746 (12:11187601 T>G), RS1002585418 (12:11188771 G>A), RS1002886015 (12:11185512 T>G), RS1005677598 (12:11187751 G>A), RS1005825741 (12:11187353 C>T), RS1006301754 (12:11187064 G>C), RS1007719390 (12:11185921 A>C,G), RS1012355293 (12:11186992 C>T), RS1016320051 (12:11187387 C>T), RS1017377827 (12:11185923 A>C,T), RS1018428852 (12:11188171 C>T), RS1018437986 (12:11187773 A>G), RS1020638851 (12:11186145 A>G), RS1022338286 (12:11188334 G>A)

Disease associations

OMIM: gene MIM:613966 | disease phenotypes:

GenCC curated gene-disease

Mondo (0):

Orphanet (0):

HPO phenotypes

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

GWAS associations

2 associations (top):

Study	Trait	p-value
GCST008529_6	Tea consumption	3.000000e-12
GCST011124_22	Caffeine consumption from tea	7.000000e-13

EFO canonical traits (1, from GWAS)

EFO ID	Trait name
EFO:0010091	tea consumption measurement

Drugs & pharmacology

Drug and pharmacology data

Is drug target: yes

ChEMBL targets (1): CHEMBL4523360 (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

ChEMBL bioactivities

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

pChembl	Type	Value	Unit	Molecule
8.31	EC50	4.9	nM	ISOPROTERENOL

CTD chemical–gene interactions

3 total (human), top 3 by PubMed support.

Chemical	Actions (top 5)	PubMed papers
Benzo(a)pyrene	affects methylation	1
Valproic Acid	decreases methylation	1
Aflatoxin B1	decreases methylation	1

ChEMBL screening assays

4 unique, capped per target: 4 functional

Representative assays (with source publication via chembl_document):

Assay ID	Type	Description	Source paper
CHEMBL4419017	Functional	Agonist activity at recombinant human N-terminal rat ST3 receptor-fused TAS2R42 expressed in HEK293T cells co-expressing Galpha16gust44 assessed as increase in intracellular calcium level at 100 uM by FLIPR assay	Methods of identifying antagonists of the hTAS2R46 bitter taste receptor

Clinical trials (associated diseases)

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