So long sweet tooth

Scientists have found that many mammals are losing their sweet taste receptors. They believe that the loss of the "sweet tooth" evolved as a result of carnivorous animal's eating behaviors.  They mostly eat meet and therefore have no need for a sweet taste receptor. "In mammals, sweet taste is mediated by the type 1 taste receptor, made up of two closely related G-protein coupled receptors, Tas1r2 and Tas1r3. Beauchamp and his team sequenced Tas1r2 in 12 species from the mammalian order Carnivora. They found mutations in Tas1r2 in 7 of the species—sea lions, fur seals, Pacific harbor seals, bottlenose dolphins, Asian small-clawed otters, spotted hyenas, cat-like fossas from Madagascar, and banded linsangs (a type of civet). “I was dumbfounded how common it was,” said Beauchamp." (thescientist.com) Because of these mutations these species have lost their sweet tooth and when sweets were presented to them they were uninterested.http://the-scientist.com/2012/03/12/sayonara-sweet-tooth/