New perspective on taste perception: does oral microbiota composition play a role?

Food choices and eating habits are a complex behavior mediated by a number of biological and environmental factors. Taste is considered one of the main predictor of individual food selection and varies greatly among individuals. Thus, there is a considerable interest in understanding how, and to what extent, individual variability can determinately contribute to explain food preferences and behaviors. Given that it has been recently proposed that the microbiota could affect individuals’ eating behaviors and food preferences, and the composition of such microbiota appears to have an important but still unclear role in obesity development, a novel approach to inquiry into the relationship between obesity, taste sensitivity and oral microbiota composition seems required.