Research fields:
Food science
Research themes:
Elucidation of the relationship between taste receptor functions and the feeding habits of animals
Main books and papers：
◆[1.1] Yasuka Toda*, Takashi Hayakawa*, Akihiro Itoigawa, Yosuke Kurihara, Tomoya Nakagita, Masahiro Hayashi, Ryuichi Ashino, Amanda D. Melin, Yoshiro Ishimaru, Shoji Kawamura, Hiroo Imai, Takumi Misaka.
Evolution of the primate glutamate taste sensor from a nucleotide sensor.
Current Biology. 31:4641–4649, Correction 4675–4676 (2021).
◆[1.2] Yasuka Toda, Meng-Ching Ko, Qiaoyi Liang, Eliot T. Miller, Alejandro Rico-Guevara, Tomoya Nakagita, Ayano Sakakibara, Kana Uemura, Timothy Sackton, Takashi Hayakawa, Simon Yung Wa Sin, Yoshiro Ishimaru, Takumi Misaka, Pablo Oteiza, James Crall, Scott V. Edwards, William Buttemer, Shuichi Matsumura, Maude W. Baldwin.
Early origin of sweet perception in the songbird radiation.
Science. 373:226-231 (2021).
◆[1.3] Yasuka Toda, Tomoya Nakagita, Takatsugu Hirokawa, Yuki Yamashita, Ayako Nakajima, Masataka Narukawa, Yoshiro Ishimaru, Riichiro Uchida, Takumi Misaka.
Positive/Negative Allosteric Modulation Switching in an Umami Taste Receptor (T1R1/T1R3) by a Natural Flavor Compound, Methional.
Scientific Reports. 8:11796 (2018).
◆[1.4] Maude W. Baldwin*, Yasuka Toda*, Tomoya Nakagita, Mary J. O’Connell, Kirk C. Klasing, Takumi Misaka, Scott V. Edwards, Stephen D. Liberles.
Evolution of sweet taste perception in hummingbirds by transformation of the ancestral umami receptor.
Science. 345:929-933 (2014).
（*equal contribution）