Steven D Munger

Steven D Munger, Ph.D.

Professor And Director

Department: MD-PHARMACOLOGY / THERAPEUTICS
Business Phone: (352) 294-5749
Business Email: steven.munger@ufl.edu

Teaching Profile

Courses Taught
2019-2021
GMS6531 Medical Pharmacology and Therapeutics III: Endocrine, Musculoskeletal and Reproductive Systems
2020-2022
PAS5026 Pharmacotherapeu 2
2018-2021,2023
GMS6560 Molecules to Man: Past, Present and Future Therapeutic Strategies for Disease
2019-2023
GMS6520 Medical Pharmacology and Therapeutics I: The Nervous System
2017-2023
DEN6262 Prin of Pharmacology
2017-2019,2021-2023,2023
GMS6070 Sensory and Motor Systems
2018
GMS7980 Research for Doctoral Dissertation
2018
GMS7979 Advanced Research
2018
ZOO7980 Research for Doctoral Dissertation
2016-2017
GMS7795 Special Topics in Neuroscience
2016
MDU4002 Introduction to Medical Science Seminar 2
2023
BMS6632 Endo and Reproduction

Research Profile

Odors, pheromones, and taste stimuli contain important information about the quality and nutrient content of food, the suitability of mates, and the presence of predators or competitors. To detect these diverse chemical cues, animals employ several distinct populations of chemosensory cells in the nose, mouth and gut, each of which expresses specialized receptors, channels and transduction cascades, though the physiological consequences of this molecular diversity remain poorly understood. In the Munger Lab, they are working to understand how diverse chemosensory transduction mechanisms, including different taste and olfactory receptors, contribute to chemosensory function, impact ingestive and social behaviors, and interact with hormonal systems that regulate metabolism, nutrient response and homeostasis. Current areas of research include:

1) Mechanisms of alimentary chemosensation: They are investigating the interactions between taste and hormonal systems. A key function of the taste system is to detect nutrients, toxins, and indicators of spoilage, thus providing the animal with critical information about the quality and nutritional value of food before it is ingested. The ability to detect and discriminate taste stimuli is essential for health and survival, and it can drive ingestive behaviors. Therefore, physiological mechanisms that modulate taste function in the context of nutritional needs and metabolic status could optimize ingestive decisions and directly impact human health. Although the gustatory system critically influences food preference, food intake, and metabolic homeostasis, the physiological mechanisms that link taste function and metabolism are poorly understood. Recent findings from their laboratory and others suggest that the gustatory and gastrointestinal systems utilize a common molecular toolkit of receptors, signaling molecules, and hormones to detect nutrients and other chemicals. This is consistent with a role for taste function in the maintenance of metabolic homeostasis and suggests that sensory function may be modulated in the context of metabolic status.

2) Extraoral chemoreceptors and the regulation of metabolism: The T1R and T2R families of G protein-coupled receptors play critical roles in the taste system, where they mediate the detection of sweet, savory, and bitter-tasting stimuli. However, in recent years, it has become clear that these same receptors are expressed in numerous tissues throughout the body. Some of these extraoral “taste” receptors may facilitate metabolic responses to ingested nutrients, while others may protect the body from inhaled or ingested toxins. Currently, the Munger Lab is using in vivo and in vitro approaches to characterize the roles of these two receptor families in the detection of chemostimuli by endocrine cells of the gut, pancreas, and thyroid. These studies should offer important new insights into the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying metabolic diseases such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, the metabolic syndrome, and thyroid dysregulation.

3) Olfactory detection of social cues: It has become increasingly clear that the concept of a single olfactory system is grossly oversimplified. The olfactory system is actually composed of a number of subsystems, some well-known and others only recently characterized. These subsystems may be anatomically segregated within the nasal cavity, and they each make distinct neural connections to regions of the olfactory forebrain. They are clearly distinguished by the receptors they express and the signaling mechanisms they employ to detect and transduce chemosensory stimuli, and they respond to a plethora of diverse molecules, sometimes quite specifically, that range from volatile odors to peptides and proteins. The Munger Lab is using integrative approaches in mice to decipher the transduction mechanisms of these specialized subsystems, the ways in which the forebrain processes these signals, and the specific behaviors that they mediate. Of particular interest is the GC-D/necklace subsystem, which is specialized to detect chemosignals that facilitate food-related social learning. Ongoing efforts are geared to understanding whether this system can be harnessed to promote the ingestion of specific edibles in the context of pest control and animal feeding.

Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)

0000-0001-5624-0925

Publications

2022
The Adaptive Olfactory Measure of Threshold (ArOMa-T): a rapid test of olfactory function
Chemical Senses. 47 [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjac036. [PMID] 36469087.
2022
Utilization of Nasal Mucus to Investigate the Pathophysiology of Chronic Rhinosinusitis.
American journal of rhinology & allergy. 36(6):872-883 [DOI] 10.1177/19458924221111830. [PMID] 35848564.
2021
Corrigendum to: More Than Smell-COVID-19 Is Associated With Severe Impairment of Smell, Taste, and Chemesthesis.
Chemical senses. 46 [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjab050. [PMID] 34879393.
2021
Olfactory subsystems associated with the necklace glomeruli in rodents
Cell and Tissue Research. 383(1):549-557 [DOI] 10.1007/s00441-020-03388-2. [PMID] 33404845.
2021
Recent Smell Loss Is the Best Predictor of COVID-19 Among Individuals With Recent Respiratory Symptoms.
Chemical senses. 46 [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjaa081. [PMID] 33367502.
2021
Y1 receptors modulate taste-related behavioral responsiveness in male mice to prototypical gustatory stimuli.
Hormones and behavior. 136 [DOI] 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.105056. [PMID] 34509673.
2020
From the Editor-in-Chief.
Chemical senses. 45(4) [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjaa013. [PMID] 32436577.
2020
Identifying Treatments for Taste and Smell Disorders: Gaps and Opportunities
Chemical Senses. 45(7):493-502 [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjaa038. [PMID] 32556127.
2020
More Than Smell-COVID-19 Is Associated With Severe Impairment of Smell, Taste, and Chemesthesis.
Chemical senses. 45(7):609-622 [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjaa041. [PMID] 32564071.
2020
Sensory neurons expressing the atypical olfactory receptor guanylyl cyclase D are required for the acquisition of odor preferences by mice in diverse social contexts.
Physiology & behavior. 227 [DOI] 10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.113150. [PMID] 32841674.
2019
Taste Receptor Cells in Mice Express Receptors for the Hormone Adiponectin.
Chemical senses. 44(6):409-422 [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjz030. [PMID] 31125082.
2017
A Bitter Tale of Sweet Synergy.
Cell chemical biology. 24(10):1191-1192 [DOI] 10.1016/j.chembiol.2017.10.003. [PMID] 29053947.
2017
Proceedings of the 2015 ASPEN Research Workshop-Taste Signaling.
JPEN. Journal of parenteral and enteral nutrition. 41(1):113-124 [DOI] 10.1177/0148607115617438. [PMID] 26598504.
2016
Interglomerular Connectivity within the Canonical and GC-D/Necklace Olfactory Subsystems.
PloS one. 11(11) [DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0165343. [PMID] 27902696.
2016
Odorants Specifically Modulate Chemotaxis and Tissue Retention of Cd4(+) T Cells Via Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate Induction
Journal of leukocyte biology. 100(4):699-709 [DOI] 10.1189/jlb.1A0914-425RR. [PMID] 27154353.
2016
Using Intrinsic Flavoprotein and NAD(P)H Imaging to Map Functional Circuitry in the Main Olfactory Bulb.
PloS one. 11(11) [DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0165342. [PMID] 27902689.
2015
Chemostimuli for guanylyl cyclase-D-expressing olfactory sensory neurons promote the acquisition of preferences for foods adulterated with the rodenticide warfarin.
Frontiers in neuroscience. 9 [DOI] 10.3389/fnins.2015.00262. [PMID] 26283902.
2015
Innate Predator Odor Aversion Driven by Parallel Olfactory Subsystems that Converge in the Ventromedial Hypothalamus.
Current biology : CB. 25(10):1340-6 [DOI] 10.1016/j.cub.2015.03.026. [PMID] 25936549.
2015
TAS2R bitter taste receptors regulate thyroid function.
FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. 29(1):164-72 [DOI] 10.1096/fj.14-262246. [PMID] 25342133.
2015
Taste responsiveness to sweeteners is resistant to elevations in plasma leptin
Chemical Senses. 40(4):223-231
2013
Gustatory stimuli representing different perceptual qualities elicit distinct patterns of neuropeptide secretion from taste buds.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 33(17):7559-64 [DOI] 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0372-13.2013. [PMID] 23616560.
2013
Peptide regulators of peripheral taste function.
Seminars in cell & developmental biology. 24(3):232-9 [DOI] 10.1016/j.semcdb.2013.01.004. [PMID] 23348523.
2013
The receptor guanylyl cyclase type D (GC-D) ligand uroguanylin promotes the acquisition of food preferences in mice.
Chemical senses. 38(5):391-7 [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjt015. [PMID] 23564012.
2012
Extraoral bitter taste receptors as mediators of off-target drug effects.
FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. 26(12):4827-31 [DOI] 10.1096/fj.12-215087. [PMID] 22964302.
2012
Mechanisms for sweetness.
The Journal of nutrition. 142(6):1134S-41S [DOI] 10.3945/jn.111.149567. [PMID] 22573784.
2012
Transformation of postingestive glucose responses after deletion of sweet taste receptor subunits or gastric bypass surgery.
American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism. 303(4):E464-74 [DOI] 10.1152/ajpendo.00163.2012. [PMID] 22669246.
2011
Reduced sweetness of a monellin (MNEI) mutant results from increased protein flexibility and disruption of a distant poly-(L-proline) II helix.
Chemical senses. 36(5):425-34 [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjr007. [PMID] 21343241.
2010
An olfactory subsystem that detects carbon disulfide and mediates food-related social learning
. 20(16):1438-1444
2010
Glucagon signaling modulates sweet taste responsiveness.
FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. 24(10):3960-9 [DOI] 10.1096/fj.10-158105. [PMID] 20547661.
2010
Receptor guanylyl cyclases in mammalian olfactory function
. 334(1):191-197
2010
Receptor guanylyl cyclases in mammalian olfactory function.
Molecular and cellular biochemistry. 334(1-2):191-7 [DOI] 10.1007/s11010-009-0325-9. [PMID] 19941039.
2010
T1R and T2R receptors: the modulation of incretin hormones and potential targets for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Current opinion in investigational drugs (London, England : 2000). 11(4):447-54 [PMID] 20336593.
2010
Variation in the gene TAS2R38 is associated with the eating behavior disinhibition in Old Order Amish women.
Appetite. 54(1):93-9 [DOI] 10.1016/j.appet.2009.09.011. [PMID] 19782709.
2009
Afferent activity to necklace glomeruli is dependent on external stimuli
. 2
2009
Afferent activity to necklace glomeruli is dependent on external stimuli.
BMC research notes. 2 [DOI] 10.1186/1756-0500-2-31. [PMID] 19284705.
2009
Functional analysis of the guanylyl cyclase type D signaling system in the olfactory epithelium.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1170:173-6 [DOI] 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04104.x. [PMID] 19686132.
2009
Heterogeneous sensory innervation and extensive intrabulbar connections of olfactory necklace glomeruli.
PloS one. 4(2) [DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0004657. [PMID] 19247478.
2009
Modulation of taste sensitivity by GLP-1 signaling in taste buds.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1170:98-101 [DOI] 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.03920.x. [PMID] 19686117.
2009
Olfaction: Noses within noses.
Nature. 459(7246):521-2 [DOI] 10.1038/459521a. [PMID] 19478776.
2009
Olfactory receptors: G protein-coupled receptors and beyond.
Journal of neurochemistry. 109(6):1570-83 [DOI] 10.1111/j.1471-4159.2009.06085.x. [PMID] 19383089.
2009
Subsystem organization of the mammalian sense of smell
. 71:115-140
2009
The receptor basis of sweet taste in mammals.
Results and problems in cell differentiation. 47:187-202 [DOI] 10.1007/400_2008_2. [PMID] 19083128.
2008
Bitter taste receptors influence glucose homeostasis.
PloS one. 3(12) [DOI] 10.1371/journal.pone.0003974. [PMID] 19092995.
2008
Modulation of taste sensitivity by GLP-1 signaling.
Journal of neurochemistry. 106(1):455-63 [DOI] 10.1111/j.1471-4159.2008.05397.x. [PMID] 18397368.
2008
The 15th International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste.
Chemical senses. 33(8):735-8 [DOI] 10.1093/chemse/bjn056. [PMID] 18849308.
2007
Contribution of the receptor guanylyl cyclase GC-D to chemosensory function in the olfactory epithelium.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104(36):14507-12 [PMID] 17724338.
2007
Monellin (MNEI) at 1.15 A resolution.
Acta crystallographica. Section F, Structural biology and crystallization communications. 63(Pt 3):162-7 [PMID] 17329805.
2006
Expression and purification of functional ligand-binding domains of T1R3 taste receptors.
Chemical senses. 31(6):505-13 [PMID] 16621970.
2005
Distinct contributions of T1R2 and T1R3 taste receptor subunits to the detection of sweet stimuli
. 15(21):1948-1952
2005
Distinct contributions of T1R2 and T1R3 taste receptor subunits to the detection of sweet stimuli.
Current biology : CB. 15(21):1948-52 [PMID] 16271873.
2005
Haplotypes at the Tas2r locus on distal chromosome 6 vary with quinine taste sensitivity in inbred mice.
BMC genetics. 6 [PMID] 15938754.
2005
Inbred mouse strains C57BL/6J and DBA/2J vary in sensitivity to a subset of bitter stimuli.
BMC genetics. 6 [PMID] 15967025.
2003
Importance of the CNGA4 channel gene for odor discrimination and adaptation in behaving mice.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 100(7):4299-304 [PMID] 12649326.
2003
Taste sensitivities to PROP and PTC vary independently in mice.
Chemical senses. 28(8):695-704 [PMID] 14627538.
2001
Central role of the CNGA4 channel subunit in Ca2+-calmodulin-dependent odor adaptation.
Science (New York, N.Y.). 294(5549):2172-5 [PMID] 11739959.
2001
From odor and pheromone transduction to the organization of the sense of smell.
Trends in neurosciences. 24(4):191-3 [PMID] 11249988.
2000
Characterization of a phosphoinositide-mediated odor transduction pathway reveals plasma membrane localization of an inositol 1,4, 5-trisphosphate receptor in lobster olfactory receptor neurons.
The Journal of biological chemistry. 275(27):20450-7 [PMID] 10781594.
1999
Targeted deletion of a cyclic nucleotide-gated channel subunit (OCNC1): biochemical and morphological consequences in adult mice.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 19(21):9313-21 [PMID] 10531436.
1998
Organizational complexity in lobster olfactory receptor cells.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 855:194-8 [PMID] 9929604.
1998
Synaptic transmission and hippocampal long-term potentiation in olfactory cyclic nucleotide-gated channel type 1 null mouse.
Journal of neurophysiology. 79(6):3295-301 [PMID] 9636130.
1996
Molecular and immunological characterization of a Gq protein from ventral and lateral eye of the horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus.
Invertebrate neuroscience : IN. 2(3):175-82 [PMID] 9372162.
1990
Nontopographic projection of olfactory sensory neurons in the crayfish brain.
The Journal of comparative neurology. 296(2):253-62 [PMID] 2358534.
More than smell – COVID-19 is associated with severe impairment of smell, taste, and chemesthesis
. [DOI] 10.1101/2020.05.04.20090902.
Olfactory subsystems associated with the necklace glomeruli in rodents
. [DOI] 10.31219/osf.io/hw39y.
Sensory neurons expressing the atypical olfactory receptor guanylyl cyclase D are required for the acquisition of odor preferences by mice in diverse social contexts
. [DOI] 10.1101/2020.07.11.198812.
The Adaptive Olfactory Measure of Threshold (ArOMa-T): A rapid test of olfactory function
. [DOI] 10.1101/2022.03.08.22272086. [PMID] 35313597.
The best COVID-19 predictor is recent smell loss: a cross-sectional study
. [DOI] 10.1101/2020.07.22.20157263. [PMID] 32743605.
Unique molecular markers for GC-D-expressing olfactory sensory neurons and chemosensory neurons of the Grueneberg ganglion
. [DOI] 10.1101/346502.

Grants

Jul 2023 ACTIVE
Training Program in Chemosensory Science
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: NATL INST OF HLTH NIDCD
Dec 2020 ACTIVE
Rapid olfactory tools for telemedicine-friendly COVID-19 screening and surveillance
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: NATL INST OF HLTH NIDCD
Sep 2018 ACTIVE
Identifying superior mango varieties for improving mango production and consumption in the US through genomic and phenomic tools
Role: Co-Project Director/Principal Investigator
Funding: US DEPT OF AG NATL INST OF FOOD AND AG
Jul 2018 ACTIVE
Training Program in Chemosensory Science
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: NATL INST OF HLTH NIDCD
Apr 2018 – Nov 2019
Services Agreement between SC Johnson and Sons and the University of Florida Board of Trustees
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: JOHNSON & SON, S C
Jun 2015 – May 2018
OR-DRPD-ROF2016: IDENTIFICATION OF NATURAL SWEET TASTERECEPTOR ALLOSTERIC MODULATORS IN NOVEL CITRUS CULTIVARS
Role: Project Manager
Funding: UF DSR OPPORTUNITY FUND
Sep 2014 – Aug 2017
TRANSDUCTION MECHANISMS AND CNS TARGETS OF GC-D NEURONS
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: NATL INST OF HLTH NIDCD
Jul 2013 – Jun 2020
Modulation of Taste-Related Behavior by Molecular Mediators of Appetite & Satiety
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: NATL INST OF HLTH NIDCD

Contact Details

Phones:
Business:
(352) 294-5749
Emails:
Addresses:
Business Mailing:
PO Box 100267
GAINESVILLE FL 32610
Business Street:
1200 NEWELL DR
GAINESVILLE FL 32610