The experiment you’ll do in the lab examines how a change in a particular gene can affect the ability of some humans to taste a bitter chemical called PTC. Read PTC The Genetics of Bitter Taste to learn a little history and background about PTC.
The two major forms (alleles) of the TAS2R38 gene can be referred to as taster and nontaster. At a particular place in the TAS2R38 gene, the taster allele has a C, while the nontaster allele has a G. We call that difference a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP, pronounced “snip”). To learn more, watch the short video “What are SNPs”?