Stimulation of the gerbil's gustatory receptors by polyols.

The gustatory responses of the Mongolian gerbil were tested with 12 sugar alcohols. The electrophysiological effectiveness of the linear polyols as gustatory stimulants increased as the length of the carbon chain increased from 2 to 5. Six and 7 carbon acyclic polyols were no more effective than the pentitols. By comparison myoinositol, a cyclic polyol, was more effective in evoking a response. Responses to mixtures of D-sorbitol and sucrose suggest that these sugars compete for a common receptor site. A sucrose receptor site and a model of it is proposed.