Bitter Taste

Your result, the DNA positions behind it, and what the research says.

8/10 confidence.

About Bitter Taste

TAS2R38 codes for a receptor on the tongue that detects a family of bitter compounds called glucosinolates, found in brassica vegetables, and the related compound PTC used in classic taste tests. Three changes in the gene travel together as a package, and it is the package rather than any one of them that sets how the receptor behaves. The two common packages are named after their building blocks: PAV, which binds those compounds strongly, and AVI, which barely binds them at all. The difference is unusually clean for a taste trait: people at opposite ends genuinely experience the same plate of food differently.

Good to know: The three positions travel together, so the package is what counts, not any single one. Strong tasters rate the same bitter compounds as more intense, though studies of what people actually eat have not settled whether they choose fewer brassica vegetables. Cooking method and added fat change how bitter these foods register.

Fun fact: The PTC paper strip handed round in school biology lessons is testing this exact receptor.

Discovery: The inherited inability to taste PTC was discovered by accident in a chemistry lab in 1931, and the receptor gene behind it was identified in 2003.

The Variants

The 3 positions this trait reads

Gene: TAS2R38

rs713598 Pro49 (P) - taster form

rs1726866 Ala262 (A) - taster form

rs10246939 Val296 (V) - taster form

Location: Chr 7:141,973,545

dbSNP rs713598

The studies

Positional cloning of the human quantitative trait locus underlying taste sensitivity to phenylthiocarbamide (Kim UK et al., Science (New York, N.Y.), 2003)

Phenome-wide investigation of dietary and health outcomes associated with bitter taste receptor gene TAS2R38 (Brito Nunes C et al., European journal of nutrition, 2025)

Differential Activation of TAS2R4 May Recover Ability to Taste Propylthiouracil for Some TAS2R38 AVI Homozygotes (Nolden AA et al., Nutrients, 2024)

Structure-function relationships between the human bitter taste receptor TAS2R38 and propylthiouracil: An in-silico investigation (Subramanian G et al., IUBMB life, 2025)

TAS2R38 bitter taste perception in the Koṅkaṇī Sārasvata Brahmin population (Sequeira JJ et al., Genes & genomics, 2023)

Other lifestyle traits

Cilantro Tastes Like Soap: A variant in a cluster of smell receptor genes, one of which responds to the aldehydes in cilantro, linked to whether the herb tastes soapy to you.

Spice Sensitivity: A change in the receptor that detects capsaicin, the compound that makes chili taste hot, linked to how intensely you feel that burn.

Umami Sensitivity: A change in one half of the umami receptor, linked to the lowest concentration of glutamate at which you can recognize savory taste.

Back to All Traits

Content updated September 2026.

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