We have a paper in the latest issue of Science Signaling:
Lee, R.J., Hariri, B.M., McMahon, D.B., Chen, B., Dogrhamji, L., Adappa, N.D., Palmer, J.N., Kennedy, D.W., Jiang, P., Margolskee, R.F., and Cohen, N.A. (2017). "Bacterial D-amino acids suppress sinonasal innate immunity through sweet taste receptors in solitary chemosensory cells." Science Signaling. 10:eaam7703.
We showed that D-amino acids secreted by Staphylococcus cultures isolated from chronic rhinosinusitis patients produce D-amino acids which activate the sweet taste receptor in airway solitary chemosensory cells. This may have important implications for host pathogen interactions and may also be important for bacterial cross-talk in the nose.
Thanks to Ben and Derek from the lab who helped out with the project, which was done in collaboration with Noam Cohen's lab from Penn. The link to the full text is on our publications page.