Super tastes and evolutionary restraint.

Super tastes and evolutionary restraint.
Andre Willers
14 Aug 2011

Synopsis:
The spectrum of bad tastes is mirrored by the spectrum of good to super good tastes .
Bad tastes are automatically self-limiting . Super good tastes are limited by epigenetic switches to protect host organisms .

Discussion:
Another episode in the Plant-Herbivore Wars .
Good tastes (read smells as well) only persist if they have some reproductive significance . If it too overwhelming , the smeller gets eaten in too large numbers .
So , an evolutionary restraint develops .

Plants thus have genes that code for super tastes , but do not express them . Now add inter-plant competition and random variation . A huge variety and number of gradients of super tastes develop .

Quorum mechanisms develop .
Plants sit and watch each other .
Human cultivation activates some better tastes in competition (why mono-cultures do not taste as good )

Mother's little helpers :
Bacteria and yeasts are tied into the system as clients of the plants .
This has profound implications for gut flora .
I estimate that 1/3 of 1/3 (~ 11%) of sensory taste is derived from gut feedback .
The inferences for the immune system are obvious .

Many bacteria (at least 1/3) are programmed to aid plants in restoration after severe environmental stress . They need a super taste to be eaten and replicate . To do that , they remove some earlier wrappers around the DNA structure , allowing expression of super taste DNA . ( A purely epigenetic mechanism)

This knowledge enables us to make super tastes to order by manipulating stressors .

Diseases
I suspect , but proof is needed , that many systemic diseases like diabetes can be suspended by super-tastes . The super-taste chemicals should have profound effects on insulin permeability of cell-walls , as well as mitochondria (of course)

An example you can do :

Super-rolls :
1.Start with bought yeast baked rolls . (Even 180 C baking temperatures will leave enough hardened bacterial kernels and epigenetic markers)
2.Freeze the roll (about minus 5 C normal freezer)
3.Microwave frozen roll for about 60 seconds at 900 W . Note that this is not equivalent to thawing . Microwaving gives internal bacteria a huge relative advantage to competitors from the outside – an information block .
4.Stand for about 6 hours after halving and smearing with butter.
(This is the crucial stage . Fermentation resumes with super taste DNA being expressed . The butter layer on the inside captures the essence . This concentrate is what the mouth tastes .)
5. The bacteria "thinks" it just went through a giant meteor impact (baking) , then a nuclear winter (freezing) , then a rapid thaw (microwaving) with intense competition coming – ie outside bacteria . It needs to be very appealing – ie tasty to maximize reproduction .
6. Varying the ingredients and analyzing the butter layer will give new and super tastes . This can be automated on a computer chip .
7. Sourdough will give a larger genetic variance , but baker's dough will give more of a selective pressure towards Taste .

Rull Taste
Are Rull taste compulsions possible ? Gross ones , yes (Just follow the recipe above). Fine ones , no .The chaotic paths are too broad .
But Metamaterial tastes/scents are possible that can compel behaviour down single neuron pathways .

Design-a-taste anyone ?

Andre