Miraculin

Miraculin glycoprotein
Crystallographic structure of a dimeric miraculin-like protein from seeds of Murraya koenigii.[1]
Identifiers
OrganismSynsepalum dulcificu
SymbolMIRA_RICDU
PDB3IIR
UniProtP13087
Search for
StructuresSwiss-model
DomainsInterPro

Miraculin is a taste modifier, a glycoprotein extracted from the fruit of Synsepalum dulcificum.[2] The berry, also known as the miracle fruit, was documented by explorer Chevalier des Marchais, who searched for many different fruits during a 1725 excursion to its native West Africa.

Miraculin itself does not taste sweet. When taste buds are exposed to miraculin, the protein binds to the sweetness receptors. This causes normally sour-tasting acidic foods, such as citrus, to be perceived as sweet.[2][3] The effect can last for one or two hours.[4][5]

  1. ^ PDB: 3IIR​; Gahloth D, Selvakumar P, Shee C, Kumar P, Sharma AK (February 2010). "Cloning, sequence analysis and crystal structure determination of a miraculin-like protein from Murraya koenigii". Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics. 494 (1): 15–22. doi:10.1016/j.abb.2009.11.008. PMID 19914199.
  2. ^ a b Theerasilp S, Kurihara Y (August 1988). "Complete purification and characterization of the taste-modifying protein, miraculin, from miracle fruit". The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 263 (23): 11536–9. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(18)37991-2. PMID 3403544. Archived from the original on 2005-08-27. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
  3. ^ Sanematsu K, Kitagawa M, Yoshida R, Nirasawa S, Shigemura N, Ninomiya Y (March 2016). "Intracellular acidification is required for full activation of the sweet taste receptor by miraculin". Scientific Reports. 6: 22807. Bibcode:2016NatSR...622807S. doi:10.1038/srep22807. PMC 4785348. PMID 26960429.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference pnas was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Swamy KB, Hadi SA, Sekaran M, Pichika MR (November 2014). "The clinical effects of Synsepalum dulcificum: a review". Journal of Medicinal Food. 17 (11): 1165–9. doi:10.1089/jmf.2013.3084. PMID 25314134.