Proteínas modificadoras de sabor: produção recombinante e suas aplicações biotecnológicas

Abstract

A class of sweet-tasting proteins from tropical forest plant fruits has been studied for their sweetening potential and also for their taste-modifier activity. The taste-modifier proteins have the ability to change bitter and sour tastes into sweet ones. The characterization of these proteins has already been studied in recent years, as well as the action of taste-modifier properties on human taste receptors. As sweet-tasting proteins and taste-modifiers have low or no caloric content, they have been identified as potential substitutes for sucrose by the food industries aimed at consumers who aim for a diet with dietary and diabetic purposes. Diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome have gradually intensified in recent years in Brazil and in the world, and taste-modifier proteins have emerged as an important alternative in the fight against diseases related to excessive consumption of conventional sugar. The production of this class of proteins has already been discussed and it is known that obtaining them from natural sources represents a logistic and economically unfavorable barrier when compared to production by recombinant expression. Therefore, the present work aimed to review the state of the art in relation to sweet-tasting proteins and taste-modifiers known so far, their potential biotechnological applications and barriers that such recombinant products will have to face before being commercialized.