Stimulation of the gerbil's gustatory receptors by disaccharides.

The gustatory responses from the chorda tympani nerve of the Mongolian gerbil, Meriones unguiculatus, were treated with 13 disaccharides. Sucrose was the most stimulatory sugar. The ability of fructosyl glycosides to stimulate may depend upon the linkage between fructose and the glycoside. Disaccharides possessing 1 leads to 3, 1 leads to 4, or 1 leads to 6 linkages were poor stimuli compared to sucrose which has a 1 leads to 2 linkage. Glucopyranosyl disaccharides with an alpha-linkage were better stimuli than the beta-anomers, while galactopyranosyl disaccharides possessing a beta-linkage were better than their alpha-amoners.