AC5 KO mice moderately preferred AC5 KO food pellets in the presence of quinine. (A, B) Behavioral preferences of WT mice and AC5 KO mice at a choice of WT pellets vs. WT pellets pasted with quinine at different doses. Two-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test: for quinine-dose responses by WT mice (A), quinine [F
(1,68) = 9.815, p = 0.0026], no food effect, and quinine x food interaction [F
(3,68) = 4.799, p = 0.0043]; for quinine-dose responses by KO mice (B), quinine [F
(1,82) = 32.11, p = 0.001], no food effect [F
(4,82) = 1.833, p = 0.1304], and no quinine x food interaction. (C, D) Behavioral preferences of WT mice and AC5 KO mice at a choice of WT pellets vs. quinine-pasted WT pellets, KO pellets vs. quinine-pasted KO pellets, and WT pellets vs. quinine-pasted KO pellets. Two-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test: for behavioral choices by WT mice (C), quinine [F
(1,18) = 23.91, p <0.001], no food effect, and no quinine x food interaction; for behavioral choices by KO mice (D), no quinine effect, no food effect, and no quinine × food interaction [F
(1,18) = 0.9741, p = 0.3376]. (E) Behavioral preferences of WT mice with trimmed whiskers at a choice of WT pellets vs. quinine-pasted WT pellets, KO pellets vs. quinine-pasted KO pellets, and WT pellets vs. quinine-pasted KO pellets. Two-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test: quinine [F
(1,13) = 18.47, p <0.001], no food effect [F
(1,13) =0.3199, p =0.9931], and quinine x food interaction [F
(1,13) = 0.0245, p = 0.8779]. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM (n = 6-12). * and ** denote the difference between indicated groups at p <0.05 and p <0.01.