Uno de los descubrimientos más llamativos de los últimos años ha sido el gen del lenguaje, FoxP2. La etiqueta el gen de suele significar un gen relacionado con, pero lo cierto es que, tratándose de un sistema tan complejo como el lenguaje humano, lo que resulta chocante es la puntería de las mutaciones en FoxP2 para desbaratarlo tan a fondo, y tan limpiamente, sin apenas tocar otras funciones mentales.
The genes TAS1R1 and TAS1R3, which encode proteins that act as a dimer to form the umami (glutamate) taste receptor, showed less variation than the TAS1R2 gene, which acts as a dimer with TAS1R3 to form the sweet taste receptor
We propose that human populations likely vary little with respect to umami perception, which is controlled by one major form of the receptor that is optimized for detecting glutamate but may vary much more with respect to sweet perception
In contrast, substantial information has accumulated about variation in the TAS2R bitter receptor gene family. The TAS2R genes have been shown to be highly polymorphic