Taste buds consist of specialized epithelial cells which detect particular tastants and synapse onto the afferent taste nerve innervating the endorgan. The nature of the neurotransmitter released by taste cells onto the nerve fiber was enigmatic early in this century although neurotransmitters for other sensory receptor cell types, e.g. hair cells, photoreceptors, was known for at least a decade. A 1999 paper by Burnstock and co-workers (Bo et al., 1999) showing the presence of P2X receptors on the afferent nerves served as a springboard for research that ultimately led to the discovery of ATP as the crucial neurotransmitter in the taste system (Finger et al., 2005). Subsequent work showed that a subpopulation of taste cells utilize a unique release channel, CALHM1/3, to release ATP in a voltage-dependent manner. Despite these advances, several aspects of purinergic transmission in this system remain to be elucidated.

味蕾由专门的上皮细胞组成，它们检测特定的促味剂和突触到支配内脏器官的传入味觉神经。味觉细胞释放到神经纤维上的神经递质的性质在本世纪初是个谜，尽管其他感觉受体细胞类型（例如毛细胞、光感受器）的神经递质至少在十年前就已为人所知。Burnstock 及其同事在 1999 年发表的一篇论文（Bo 等人，1999 年）显示传入神经上存在 P2X 受体，作为研究的跳板，最终导致发现 ATP 作为味觉系统中的关键神经递质（ Finger 等人，2005 年）。随后的工作表明，味觉细胞亚群利用独特的释放通道 CALHM1/3 以电压依赖性方式释放 ATP。尽管取得了这些进步，