The mucins of sheep colonic mucosa, like other epithelial secretions, are members of the group of 'neutral' niucosubstances These characteristically contain L-fucose, D-galactose, N-acetylamino sugars and frequently sialic acids and mannose (Gottschalk, 1960). Their chemical structure and the nature of the sugar- peptide links involved have not yet been established. Previous investigations (Pasternak, Kent & Davies, 1958; Pasternak & Kent, 1958) have shown that mucosal cells, as scrapings in vitro, were highly active in incorporating [3nS]sulphate into the mucins of various gastrointestinal tissues. Wolf & Varandani (1960) and Wolf, Varandani & Johnson (1961) described partly purified enzyme systems from rat and pig colonic tissues, which catalysed the incorporation of isotopically labelled sulphate. In addition, homogenates incubated with [14C]glucose gave radioactive mucins, from which [14C]glucosamine could be isolated after
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Draper et al. (1963) studied this question.