Pinky Tripathi
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

The sense of taste evolved in the earliest vertebrates, subject to different interpretation by organisms. Taste is mediated through taste buds, each supported by a narrow connective tissue papilla from the underlying tissues through which the taste buds get their nerve and blood supply. Each taste bud has a small opening—the taste pore through which it remains in direct contact with the external environment. A taste bud is typically composed of supporting cells (sustentacular cells) and elongated neurosensory taste cells arranged like segments of an orange. The taste cells at their free surface have taste hairs that project at the surface of the epithelium through the taste pore.