Julie Cohen, ’The Feel of Food – A team of biologists has discovered the cellular mechanism through which fruit flies sense food texture’, http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2016/017033/feel-food, University of California (July 28, 2016).
Mice and humans
A new study (…) sheds light on how fruit flies “feel” foods based on two important textural features — viscosity and hardness. (…) TMC may be an important part of a mechanosensor that functions both in humans and in flies, for hearing and taste, respectively. (…) Because there are eight different types of TMCs in mice and humans, it would be fascinating to learn whether any of them has a role in food texture sensation in mammals.