Abstract: Taste is one of the most important physiological senses in animals. Vertebrates generally have five basic taste forms that assist in the selection of food. Among them, the sweet and umami receptors are encoded by the Tas1r gene family, which can help anmimals identify and absorb dietary carbohydrates and amino acids, respectively, and are crucial for the survival of most animals. Recent studies in genomics and molecular biology have shown that the evolution of Tas1r gene family in vertebrates is complex, and its gene number and protein function are significantly different among distinct animal clades. The Tas1r gene family originated from Chondrichthyes and expanded via duplication in Actinopterygii. The dimer of Tas1r2/Tas1r3 can sense both sweet and umami compounds in Actinopterygii. In amphibians, reptiles and mammals, Tas1r1/Tas1r3 and Tas1r2/Tas1r3 dimers can sense umami compounds and sweet compounds, respectively. Notably, Tas1r2 gene was lost in all birds, suggestive of the loss of sweet taste in early evolution of birds. However, some birds have undergone functional innovation in the dimer of Tasr1/Tas1r3, which can perceive both sweetness and umami simultaneously. This article summarized the relevant research progress on the evolution of the Tas1r gene, and sorted out the origin, evolution, and functional innovation of the Tas1r gene family, which can help to gain a deeper understanding of the role of food preference in species evolution and point out the direction for future related research.