Summary
In the present study carbohydrate residues in taste buds (TBs) and adjacent epithelial formations of a teleostean fish, a frog and the rabbit were detected by means of lectin histochemistry. Biotinylated lectins fromPisum sativum (PSA),Arachis hypogaea (PNA),Dolichos biflorus (DBA),Triticum vulgaris (WGA and succinylated WGA),Glycine max (SBA) andUlex europaeus (UEA I) have been applied. The lectins were bound to an avidin-biotin-peroxidase-complex (ABC) and visualized by diaminobenzidine/ H2O2. Most intensive reactivity was observed at the taste dise cells of the frog with DBA, S-WGA and SBA. PNA did not bind to the TBs of any of the animals tested. As shown in SBA preparations, sialic acid is present in a nonacylated and an acylated form in the mucosa of the frog's tongue. The TBs of the fish possess all the sugars we looked for except for the disaccharided-galactose-(1–3)-β-d-N-acetyl-galactosamine (Gal/GalNAc) and sialic acid. The TBs of the rabbit contain GalNAc, as detected with DBA, but not with SBA; and fucose (Fuc), mannose (Man) andN-acetyl-glucosamine (GlcNAc). As revealed by preincubation of the tissue sections with neuraminidase in TB cells of the rabbit, sialic acid masks Gal/GalNAc and GalNAc. These lectin-binding characteristics show that in the TBs of some selected representatives which belong to different vertebrate classes exist different mucous substances. These substances possess different binding characteristics to specific sugars, and this is possibly of particular interest to chemoreception phenomena.
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Dedicated to Professor Dr. T.H. Schiebler on the occasion of his 65th birthday.
Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Re 225/9-1)
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Witt, M., Reutter, K. Lectin histochemistry on mucous substances of the taste buds and adjacent epithelia of different vertebrates. Histochemistry 88, 453–461 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00570308
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00570308