Taste receptors play important roles in perception of L-amino acids and feeding behavior. However, convincing evidence providing causal links between taste receptors and feeding habits is lacking. We generated two mutant lines with t1r1 deletion in zebrafish by CRISPR/Cas9 technology. t1r1 deletion eliminated sensitivity to alanine in zebrafish. Additionally, it did not affect feeding behavior of zebrafish supplied with habitual food such as Artemia salina, while significantly enhanced their acceptance of rejective food such as duckweed and plant-protein source diets. Furthermore, replacement of fish meal with plant protein in diets significantly suppressed transcript levels of orexigenic gene npy and increased mRNA expression levels of anorexigenic gene pomca in wild-type zebrafish but had no effect in t1r1^−/− zebrafish. In addition, when fed with fish meal diet, transcript levels of npy and pomca were significantly different in t1r1^−/− zebrafish compared with wild-type zebrafish. Overall, these findings suggested that T1R1 was indispensable for amino acid perception and significantly affected the feeding preference and habit in zebrafish.

味觉受体在 L-氨基酸的感知和进食行为中起重要作用。然而，缺乏令人信服的证据提供味觉受体和饮食习惯之间的因果关系。我们通过 CRISPR/Cas9 技术在斑马鱼中生成了两个具有t1r1缺失的突变系。t1r1缺失消除了斑马鱼对丙氨酸的敏感性。此外，它不会影响斑马鱼在食用盐卤卤虫等习惯性食物时的摄食行为，同时显着提高了它们对浮萍和植物蛋白源饮食等排斥性食物的接受度。此外，在饮食中用植物蛋白替代鱼粉显着抑制了促食欲基因npy 的转录水平并增加了野生型斑马鱼中厌食基因pomca 的mRNA 表达水平，但对t1r1 ^-/-斑马鱼没有影响。此外，当喂食鱼粉饮食时，与野生型斑马鱼相比，t1r1 ^-/-斑马鱼中npy和pomca 的转录水平显着不同。总体而言，这些发现表明 T1R1 对于氨基酸感知是必不可少的，并显着影响斑马鱼的摄食偏好和习性。