An ultrastructural study of wheat germ agglutinin binding sites using glucose oxidase as a marker

Abstract

The wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) binding sites of unfixed, normal, and Rous sarcoma virus-transformed chick embryo fibroblasts were visualized cytochemically with the electron microscope by means of glucose oxidase as a marker. It was observed that (a) WGA binding sites were available on both normal and transformed cell surfaces; (b) the labeling was practically the same in both cell types and tended to have a patchy distribution; (c) prior treatment of the cells with trypsin, hyaluronidase, or neuraminidase had no significant effect on this labeling.