Characterization of saltiness-enhancing peptides from Pleurotus eryngii: identification, sensory evaluations, and mechanism of saltiness-enhancing

1. Ji, T. et al. Decoding of the saltiness enhancement taste peptides from Jinhua ham and its molecular mechanism of interaction with ENaC/TMC4 receptors. Food Chem. 463, 141455 (2025).

   Google Scholar 

2. Greer, R. C. et al. Potassium-enriched salt substitutes as a means to lower blood pressure benefits and risks. Hypertension 75, 266–274 (2020).

   Google Scholar 

3. Le, B. et al. Salt taste receptors and associated salty/salt taste-enhancing peptides: A comprehensive review of structure and function. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 129, 657–666 (2022).

   Google Scholar 

4. Hoppu U. et al. Effect of salt reduction on consumer acceptance and sensory quality of food. Foods 6, 103 (2017).

5. Rojas, C., Ballabio, D., Consonni, V., Suarez-Estrella, D. & Todeschini, R. Classification-based machine learning approaches to predict the taste of molecules: a review. Food Res. Int. 171, 113036 (2023).

6. Tan, H.-L., Tan, T.-C. & Easa, A. M. The use of salt substitutes to replace sodium chloride in food products: a review. Int. J. Food Sci. Technol. 57, 6997–7007 (2022).

   Google Scholar 

7. Niu, Y. et al. Characteristics of saltiness-enhancing peptides derived from yeast proteins and elucidation of their mechanism of action by molecular docking. Food Chem. 449, 139216 (2024).

   Google Scholar 

8. Gu, Y. et al. Identification of Novel Umami peptides from yeast protein through enzymatic, sensory, and in silico approaches. J. Agric. Food Chem. 72, 20014–20027 (2024).

   Google Scholar 

9. Zhang, W. et al. Effect of different sulfur-containing compounds on the structure, sensory properties and antioxidant activities of Maillard reaction products obtained from Pleurotus citrinopileatus hydrolysates. LWT 171, 114144 (2022).

   Google Scholar 

10. Zhang, T. et al. Umami peptides screened based on peptidomics and virtual screening from Ruditapes philippinarum and Mactra veneriformis clams. Food Chem. 394, 133504 (2022).

11. Huang, P. et al. Decoding of novel umami peptides from corn fermented powder and its mechanism via multisensory techniques, virtual screening, and molecular simulation approaches. Food Chem. 463, 141449 (2024).

12. Huang, P., Liu, Y., Cai, L. & Cui, C. Investigation of the multiple taste enhancement properties of N-succinyl-amino acids and their relationship to chemical structure using dynamic sensory techniques. Food Chem. 453, 139661 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

13. Lao, H. et al. Discovery of novel umami-enhancing peptides in Russula vinosa Lindblad through multi-level virtual screening, multisensory evaluation, electronic tongue, and molecular simulation. Food Chem. X 30, 102964 (2025).

    Google Scholar 

14. Kasahara, Y. et al. TMC4 is a novel chloride channel involved in high-concentration salt taste sensation. J. Physiol. Sci. 71, 23 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

15. Shen, D.-Y. et al. Identification of novel saltiness-enhancing peptides from yeast extract and their mechanism of action for transmembrane channel-like 4 (TMC4) protein through experimental and integrated computational modeling. Food Chem. 388, 132993 (2022).

16. Chen, D. et al. Saltiness enhancing peptides isolated from enzymolysis extract of Lentinula edodes and their taste enhancing action mechanisms. LWT 188, 115430 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

17. Wu, J., Ling, Z., Feng, Y., Cui, C. & Li, L. Kokumi-Enhancing Mechanism of N-L-lactoyl-L-Met Elucidated by Sensory Experiments and Molecular Simulations. J. Agric. Food Chem. 71, 14697–14705 (2023).

    Google Scholar 

18. Xiao, Z., Qu, H., Mao, C. & Niu, Y. Study on the sweetening mechanism of aroma compounds in yangshan peach using sensory analysis, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulation techniques. LWT 191, 115562 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

19. Shan, Y. et al. Decoding of the saltiness enhancement taste peptides from the yeast extract and molecular docking to the taste receptor T1R1/ T1R3. J. Agric. Food Chem. 70, 14898–14906 (2022).

    Google Scholar 

20. Huang, P. et al. Decoding of the saltiness-enhancing peptides derived from walnut meal protein and evaluation of their mechanism of interaction with ENaC/TMC4 receptors. J. Agric. Food Chem. 73, 22684–22697 (2025).

    Google Scholar 

21. Jia, R. et al. Excavation, identification and structure-activity relationship of heat-stable umami peptides in the processing of Wuding chicken. Food Chem. 430, 137051 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

22. Li, J. et al. A screening strategy for identifying umami peptides with multiple bioactivities from Stropharia rugosoannulata using in silico approaches and SPR sensing. Food Chem. 431, 137057 (2024).

23. Gu, Y. et al. Screening and characterization of novel umami peptides in Cheddar cheese using peptidomics and bioinformatics approaches. Lwt 194, 115780 (2024).

24. Gu, Y. et al. Virtual screening and characteristics of novel umami peptides from porcine type I collagen. Food Chem. 434, 137386 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

25. Spaggiari, G., Di Pizio, A. & Cozzini, P. Sweet, umami and bitter taste receptors: State of the art of in silico molecular modeling approaches. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 96, 21–29 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

26. Xu, Y. et al. Novel Umami peptides from mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) and Their Umami enhancing effect via virtual screening and molecular simulation. J. Agric. Food Chem. 72, 9307–9316 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

27. Schindler, A. et al. Discovery of salt taste enhancing arginyl dipeptides in protein digests and fermented fish sauces by means of a sensomics approach. J. Agric. Food Chem. 59, 12578–12588 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

28. Cao, Y. et al. Identification of novel saltiness/saltiness enhancing peptides in egg proteins: Molecular docking, action mechanism and in vitro activity validation. Food Chem.-X 26, 102261 (2025).

29. Li, X. et al. Identification, taste characteristics and molecular docking study of novel umami peptides derived from the aqueous extract of the clam meretrix meretrix Linnaeus. Food Chem. 312, 126053 (2020).

30. Chen, D. et al. Saltiness enhancing peptides isolated from enzymolysis extract of Lentinula edodes and their taste enhancing action mechanisms. Lwt 188, 115430 (2023).

31. Wang, R. et al. Decoding of salty/saltiness-enhancing peptides derived from goose hemoglobin and the interaction mechanism with TMC4 receptor. J. Agric. Food Chem. 72, 19107–19119 (2024).

    Google Scholar 

32. Xie, X. et al. The enhancement and mechanism of the perception of saltiness by umami peptide from Ruditapes philippinarum and ham. Food Chem. 405, 134886 (2023).

33. Song, S. et al. Identification of novel umami peptides from Boletus edulis and its mechanism via sensory analysis and molecular simulation approaches. Food Chem. 398, 133835 (2023).

34. Zhang, N. et al. Typical Umami ligand-induced binding interaction and conformational change of T1R1-VFT. J. Agric. Food Chem. 70, 11652–11666 (2022).

    Google Scholar 

35. Sasaki, K. & Yamashita, T. Modification and validation of the DREIDING force field for molecular liquid simulations (DREIDING-UT). J. Chem. Inf. Modeling 61, 1172–1179 (2021).

    Google Scholar 

36. Pan, F. et al. A molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation study on the interaction between cyanidin-3-O-glucoside and major proteins in cow’s milk. J. Food Biochem. 45, e13570 (2021).

37. Sun, X. et al. The enhancement of the perception of saltiness by umami sensation elicited by flavor enhancers in salt solutions. Food Res. Int. 157, 111287 (2022).

    Google Scholar 

38. Goodstein, E. S., Bohlscheid, J. C., Evans, M. & Ross, C. F. Perception of flavor finish in model white wine: a time-intensity study. Food Qual. Prefer. 36, 50–60 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

39. Lu, T. & Chen, F. Multiwfn: a multifunctional wavefunction analyzer. J. Comput. Chem. 33, 580–592 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author notes

1. These authors contributed equally: Min Yang, Wei Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

1. College of Life Science, Jianghan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China

   Min Yang, Wei Wang, Changli Zeng, Hongbo Wang & Danyun Xu

2. College of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning, China

   Biyang Zhu

3. College of Food Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China

   Aimin Ma

Contributions

M.Y.: Investigation, Data Curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Software, Writing-Original Draft, Writing-review & editing. W.W.: Investigation, Data Curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Software, Writing-review & editing. B.Z.: Data Curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Software. C.Z.: Data Curation, Methodology, Software. A.M.: Data Curation, Formal analysis, Software. H.W.: Writing-review & editing, Supervision, Revision. D.X.: Methodology, Data Curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Resources, Supervision, Project administration, Revision.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hongbo Wang or Danyun Xu.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions