Eel-serum lectin

Another feature of the eel-serum specificity that is unlike that of other lectins is the existence of anomeric preference only within the L-fucose series.167,674 Thus, a-L-fucopyranosides are two to five times as efficient as inhibitors as their parent compounds, whereas their /3-L-glycosidically linked counterparts have half to one-third the effect. On the other hand, the anomers of methyl 3-O-methyl-D-fucopyranoside are of equivalent activity, being approximately twice as active as the parent saccharide. In the D series, over 90% of the binding energy is evidently accounted for by parts of the sugar molecule other than the anomeric carbon atom and the aglycon. 

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