Although most research on genetics of sweet taste was conducted in mice, strain differences in sweetener preferences have been reported for rats[148-152] and hamsters.[153] Rat T1R3 is a part of the taste receptor responding to saccharin.[38,40,154] However, rat strains with different saccharin preferences do not differ in protein sequence of T1R3.[155] Consistent with this, QTLs for saccharin preference in the rat were mapped to chromosomes 3, 16 and 18, but not to chromosome 5 where rat Tas1r3 resides.[156] Therefore, rat strain differences in saccharin preferences depend on genes other than Tas1r3.
