Fish are capable of detecting through either chemical sense extremely low levels of particular organic compounds in the environment. These chemicals may signal a food source, indicate the presence of a possible mate, trigger an alarm response, or serve some other function. The primary experimental animals used in my research are freshwater and marine catfish, which are known to possess well-developed senses of olfaction and taste. Other species recently studied include largemouth bass, rainbow trout and walleye. Facial taste responses of the channel catfish to binary mixtures of amino acids.
Citrate ions enhance taste responses to amino acids in the largemouth bass.
Sorensen, P. and Caprio, J. 1998. Chemoreception in Fish. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, New York., pp. Kang, J. and Caprio, J. 1997. In vivo responses of single olfactory receptor neurons of channel catfish to binary mixtures of amino acids.