Gymnema Tea Lab Student Instruction +Data sheet 20 PDF

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Gymnema Tea Lab Student Instruction...

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Cell Communication Lab Gymnema Tea and Taste Receptors Lab Procedure Background Chemoreception is the process by which organisms sense chemicals in their environment. This is often regarded as the oldest sense and is universal among animals; it is even found in bacteria and other microorganisms. Organisms use chemoreception to accomplish a number of different tasks, including identifying suitable habitats, determining the quality of a food source, finding a mate, finding places to lay eggs, and/or monitoring their internal environments. Animals receive chemical information with special receptor neurons called chemoreceptors. Procedure To determine how taste receptors work you will drink a tea made from the Indian herb Gymnema sylvestre . This tea has a profound but reversible effect on your sense of taste. Your task is to determine what effect Gymnema has on taste perceptions and try to come up with a mechanism that explains this effect. 1. Obtain the following materials: ● A small package of salt ● A small package of sugar ● 2 chocolate chips ● 2 Sour Patch Kids ● Two small Dixie cups 2. Taste these samples in the following order. ● Salt ● Sugar ● Chocolate ● Sour Patch Kids 3. In the table on your student handout, rate each substance for the perception of sweet, sour, and salty taste on a scale from 0 to 10. A rating of “0” represents no perceived taste whereas a rating of “10” represents a very intense taste. 4. After your initial taste and taste rating of each substance, get a small sample of the Gymnema tea. 5. Swish one ounce of tea in your mouth for 30 seconds. Try to coat all areas of the mouth with the tea. Spit the tea into the sink when finished, then rinse your mouth briefly with water. 6. Beginning with salt, (and following the list above) re-taste each of the substances. Rate and record your perceptions of sweet, sour, bitter, and salty for each substance. 7. Answer the questions on the student handout.

Name___Dina Abou Dargham____ Date__Thursday, Dec 10__ Class Period__6__ Cell Communication Lab Gymnema Tea and Taste Receptors Student Handout In the table below, rate each substance for the perception of sweet, sour, and salty taste on a scale from 0 to 10. A rating of “0” represents no perceived taste whereas a rating of “10” represents a very intense taste. USE THE DATA PROVIDED IN THE VIDEO TO COMPLETE THE TABLE. Taste Ratings Sweet

Sour

Bitter

Salty

Salt: Before

0

0

1

8

Salt: After

0

0

0

10

Sugar:Before

8

0

0

0

Sugar: After

1

0

0

0

Chocolate: Before

7

0

1

1

Chocolate: After

1

0

6

3

Sweetart: Before

4

7

3

2

Sweetart: After

1

10

3

4

Analysis Questions 1. Based on the data, what observations can you make about the effect of Gymnema sylvestre on the sense of taste? Which type(s) of taste does the tea alter? Support your claim with evidence.

The observations I can make is that amplified the salty taste and reduced the sweet taste, so Gymnema sylvestre effects the taste receptors.

2. Below is a generic cell signaling pathway. Briefly identify and explain each numbered step in the pathway.

Step 1:

Extracellular Fluid, hormone/ ligand binding to receptor to initiate/trigger/induce signaling OR signal reception . Step 2:

Cytoplasm, an intracellular cascade that transduces/amplifies/transfers the signal from plasma membrane to nucleus (or other cellular effectors). Step 3:

Nucleus, transcription/expression of target genes is stimulated/repressed. 3. Determine a possible mechanism for the effect of Gymnema on the perception of taste. Questions to consider for your response: a. Of the numbered steps in question #3 above, which does gymnema most likely interfere with directly? b. How does the interference with this step cause a loss in taste perception? a- Insulin interacts with GYMNEMA,b- it cause your blood sugar to be too low.a...