Surfactant-like material on the chemoreceptorial surface of the frog's taste organ: an ultrastructural and electron spectroscopic imaging study.

Tannic acid treatment was used to study the morphology of surfactant-like material (SLM) in the taste organ of Rana esculenta and the relation between this material and the cell types of the organ. On the surface of the taste organ SLM was associated with the apical processes of wing and putative taste cells. In SLM, a biphasic pattern was visible, a portion showed a lamellar periodicity (the repeating period of lamellae approximated 45 A), and a second portion showed an homogeneous electron density. Electron spectroscopic imaging revealed the presence of phosphorus and a large amount of calcium associated with the SLM. The result of our work suggests that SLM has a role in the perireceptorial events in the gustatory transduction by concentrating calcium in specific sites of the chemoreceptorial surface.