Cats and their Sweet-tooth

I heard on NPR’s Morning Edition on the 25th that cats lack the gene that enables them to sense sweet tastes in the same way we do.

This study from the Monell Chemical Senses Center was published in the Public Library of Science’s journal Genetics.

I find this item fascinating from an evolutionary standpoint. Was the gene turned off before or after cats became exclusively carnivores? I’m not a evolutionary geneticist, but it would be my inclination to assume that the taste buds disappeared, selecting cats to prefer meat-only diets.