哺乳动物脂味觉及其受体CD36的确定是近年来激动人心的新发现，而对鱼类味觉的研究目前还相当薄弱。我们的前期研究表明：虽然与哺乳动物有很大的不同，但鱼类也具有脂味觉，且CD36在鱼类味蕾呈显著表达，并受脂肪酸调控。故CD36作为鱼类候选脂味受体很值得期待。本项目拟以斑马鱼为材料：1）通过检测CD36基因/蛋白与味觉细胞标记分子的共表达，确认其在味觉细胞的定位；2）结合体内体外实验，深入分析脂味物质对CD36基因/蛋白表达的特异调控，并揭示其是否介导脂味觉信号途径；3）运用钙离子成像技术探究CD36在脂味觉感知中作为受体的功能；4）观察基因敲除前后斑马鱼摄食脂味饵料能力的变化，综合分析CD36在鱼类脂味觉感知中的作用。本研究将为阐明鱼类脂味觉在摄食选择和感知过程中的分子机制奠定基础，深化对动物味觉进化的认识，并可对水产实践中鱼类饵料的开发提供理论依据。

Taste acts as the last step for an animal's food acceptance or rejection behavior by evaluating the nutritious content and the overall pleasure of the food. Recently more and more evidences raise the possibility for the taste system in the role of the perception of lipids in mammals. Also, the fatty acid receptor CD36 has been proved to be as an important candidate of fat taste receptor. Fish has different taste modality with mammals, however our work has suggested that fish can also perceive to fatty acids. CD36 is highly conserved during evolution and is widely present in the vertebrates, but it is no report about the function of CD36 in fish taste. We has shown that CD36 is highly expressed in the taste buds in fish, and the expression of CD36 is regulated upon the linoleic acid stimulants, indicating the role of CD36 in fat perception in fish. Based on these, the zebrafish is used as a model in this project, and we would further investigate the location of CD36 in fish taste bud cell by detecting the co-expression with the marker molecular of taste bud cell; then detect the response of zebrafish CD36 to fatty acid and the signal pathway mediated by CD36. Also, we would further uncover the role of CD36 as a receptor in transferring the fat taste signal by calcium imaging technology; and detect the change of the sensitivity to fatty acid after CD36 knock out by TALENs or Cas9 technology in zebrefish. This project would benefit to understand the molecular mechanism of fish fat taste perception and the evolution of taste. It has also the potential instruction to the fish nutrition and diet development.