Welcome to BitterDB!

Bitter taste is one of the basic taste modalities. It is innately aversive for various species, and can be elicited by numerous, chemically different compounds. The aim of this database is to gather information about bitter-tasting natural and synthetic compounds, and their cognate bitter taste receptors (T2Rs or TAS2Rs).


Human
For Human (Homo sapiens), BitterDB contains information on 26 functional bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs). Of these, 23 have experimentally validated ligands and the remaining 3 are orphans.

Mouse
For Mouse (Mus musculus), BitterDB contains information on 35 functional bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs). Of these, 26 have experimentally validated ligands and the remaining 9 are orphans.

Chicken
For Chicken (Gallus gallus), BitterDB contains information on 3 functional bitter taste receptors TAS2Rs. All 3 receptors have experimentally validated ligands.

Cat
For Domestic Cat (Felis catus), BitterDB contains information on 12 functional bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs). Of these, 8 have experimentally confirmed ligands and the remaining 4 are orphans.

Platypus
For Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), BitterDB contains information on 7 functional bitter taste receptors TAS2Rs. Of these, 5 have experimentally validated ligands and the remaining 2 are still orphaned.

Echidna
For Short-Beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), BitterDB contains information on 2 functional bitter taste receptors TAS2Rs. Of these, 2 have experimentally validated ligands and 1 remains an orphan.

Cattle
For Cattle (Bos taurus), BitterDB contains information on 1 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs. For which there are 6 experimentally confirmed ligands.

Elephant
For African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) there is information about 1 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs in BitterDB. There are 6 experimentally confirmed ligands.

Opossum
For Opossum (Monodelphis domestica), BitterDB contains information on 1 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs. For which no experimentally confirmed ligands are available yet.

Quoll
For Eastern Quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus), BitterDB contains information about 1 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs. For which there are 4 experimentally confirmed ligands.

Tasmanian Devil
For Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), BitterDB contains information on 1 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs. For which no experimentally validated ligands are available.

Wallaby
For Wallaby (Macropus eugenii), BitterDB contains information about 1 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs. For which there are 4 experimentally confirmed ligands.

Koala
For Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), BitterDB contains information on 1 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs. There are 4 experimentally confirmed ligands.

Dog
For Dog (Canis familiaris), BitterDB contains information on 16 functional bitter taste receptors TAS2Rs. Of these, 9 have experimentally validated ligands and 7 are orphan.

Fish:
5 species were grouped together in Fish: Mexican Tetra (Astyanax mexicanus), West Indian Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), Zebrafish (Danio rerio), European Carp (Cyprinus carpio) and Smalltooth Sawfish (Pristis pectinata). For Fish, BitterDB contains information on 19 functional TAS2R bitter taste receptors. Of these, 17 have experimentally validated ligands and 2 are currently orphaned.

Vampire Bat
For Vampiter Bat (Desmodus rotundus), BitterDB contains information on 8 functional bitter taste receptors TAS2Rs. Of these, 5 have experimentally validated ligands and 3 are orphan.

Frog
For American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), BitterDB contains information on 11 functional bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs). Of these, 5 have experimentally validated ligands and 6 are currently orphaned.

Shark
4 species have been grouped together in Shark: Small-Spotted Catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula), Cloudy Catshark (Scyliorhinus torazame), Brown-banded Bamboo Shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) and White-Spotted Bamboo Shark (Chiloscyllium plagiosum). For Shark, information on 4 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs is available in BitterDB. Experimentally validated ligands are available for all of them.

Stingray
For Red Stingray (Hemitrygon akajei), BitterDB contains information on 1 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs. There are 3 experimentally confirmed ligands.

Bird
4 species have been grouped together in Bird: Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata), Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna), Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) and Chuck-Will's Widow (Antrostomus carolinensis). For Bird, BitterDB contains information on 13 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs. Experimentally validated ligands are available for all.

Turkey
For Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), BitterDB contains information on 2 functional bitter taste receptors TAS2Rs. Experimentally validated ligands are available for all.

Primate
34 species have been grouped together in Primate: Common Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), Northern White-Cheeked Gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys), Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta), White-Headed Langur (Trachypithecus leucocephalus), Red-Shanked Douc (Pygathrix nemaeus), Common Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), Cotton-Top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), Coppery Titi Monkey (Plecturocebus cupreus), White-Faced Saki (Pithecia pithecia), Bald Uakari (Cacajao calvus), White-Nosed Saki (Chiropotes albinasus), Northern Greater Galago (Otolemur garnettii), Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur catta), Black Lemur (Eulemur macaco), Black-and-White Ruffed Lemur (Varecia variegata), Greater Bamboo Lemur (Prolemur simus), Golden Bamboo Lemur (Hapalemur aureus), Eastern Lesser Bamboo Lemur (Hapalemur griseus), Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata), Long-Nosed Monkey (Nasalis larvatus), East Javan Langur (Trachypithecus auratus), Raffles Banded Langur (Presbytis femoralis), Mantled Guereza (Colobus guereza), Angola Colobus (Colobus angolensis), Heck's Macaque (Macaca hecki), Celebes Crested Macaque (Macaca nigra), Gorontalo Macaque (Macaca nigrescens), Tonkean Macaque (Macaca tonkeana), Common Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), Azara's Night Monkey (Aotus azarae), Colombian White-Faced Capuchin (Cebus capucinus), Geoffroy's Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi), Mantled Howler (Alouatta Palliata) and Silvery Lutung (Trachypithecus cristatus). For Primate, BitterDB contains information on 63 functional bitter taste receptor TAS2Rs. Experimentally validated ligands are available for all of them. Of these, 24 have experimentally validated ligands and 39 are orphan.

Blind Mole Rat
For the Blind Mole Rat (Spalax galili), BitterDB contains information on 6 functional bitter taste receptors TAS2Rs. Of these, 3 have experimentally validated ligands and 3 remain orphaned for the time being.

How to Cite BitterDB:

Evgenii Ziaikin, Moran David, Sofya Uspenskaya, Masha Niv, BitterDB: 2024 update on bitter ligands and taste receptors, Nucleic Acids Research, 2024, doi: 10.1093/nar/gkae1044
Click here to view the paper: BitterDB 2024 paper

Ayana Dagan-Wiener, Antonella Di Pizio, Ido Nissim, Malkeet S. Bahia, Nitzan Dubovski, Eitan Margulis, Masha Y. Niv, BitterDB: taste ligands and receptors database in 2019, Nucleic Acids Research, 2019, 47(D1), D1179–D1185
Click here to view the paper: BitterDB 2019 paper

Ayana Wiener, Marina Shudler, Anat Levit, Masha Y. Niv, BitterDB: a database of bitter compounds, 2012, Nucleic Acids Research, 40(D1), D413–D419
Click here to view the paper: BitterDB paper

BitterDB underwent a major update in 2024:

BitterDB now holds over 2400 bitter molecules. For ~800 molecules, at least one associated bitter taste receptor (TAS2R) is reported. The overall number of ligand-TAS2R associations is now ~2000. BitterDB is extended to 66 additional species (including dog, birds, fishes and primates) and links to available experimental structures and AlphaFold models of TAS2Rs are provided.

BitterDB provides several ways to investigate the bitter world: search for bitter compounds by different criteria, search for bitter molecules with structure similar to a query compound, Browse bitter receptors and more.

go to : compounds search >>

go to : Receptor search >>

Related resources:

BitterPredict is a machine learning classifier that predicts whether a chemical compound will taste bitter or not based on its chemical structure
Click here to view the paper: BitterPredict paper

How to Cite BitterPredict:
Ayana Dagan-Wiener, Ido Nissim, Natalie Ben Abu, Gigliola Borgonovo, Angela Bassoli, Masha Y. Niv, Bitter or not? BitterPredict, a tool for predicting taste from chemical structure, Scientific Reports, 2017, 7, 12074

BitterIntense is a machine learning tool developed to classify molecules as either "very bitter" or "not very bitter" based on their chemical structure
Click here to view the paper: BitterIntense paper

How to Cite BitterIntense:
Eitan Margulis, Ayana Dagan-Wiener, Robert S. Ives, Sara Jaffari, Karsten Siems, Masha Y. Niv, Intense bitterness of molecules: Machine learning for expediting drug discovery, Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal, 2021, 19, 568-576

BitterMatch is a machine learning algorithm designed to predict associations between ligands and bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs)
Click here to view the paper: BitterMatch paper

How to Cite BitterMatch:
Eitan Margulis, Yuli Slavutsky, Tatjana Lang, Maik Behrens, Yuval Benjamini, Masha Y. Niv, BitterMatch: recommendation systems for matching molecules with bitter taste receptors, 2022, Journal of Cheminformatics, 14(45)

BitterMasS is a machine learning tool for predicting the bitterness of a compound based on its mass spectrum
Click here to view the paper: BitterMasS paper

How to Cite BitterMasS:
Evgenii Ziaikin, Edisson Tello, Devin G. Peterson, Masha Y. Niv, BitterMasS: Predicting Bitterness from Mass Spectra, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2024, 72(18), 10537–10547

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.