Lectins monosaccharide specificities

Discrimination between Gal versus Man/GIc. While the ultimate selectivity of lectins is probably attained by the subsites and subunit multivalency, a major discriminatory factor in carbohydrate recognition is the primary monosaccharide specificity. In general, selectivity are achieved through a combination of hydrogen bonding to the sac-... 

For checking the specificity of interactions between glycoprotein and lectin, an incubation in the presence and the absence of 1 -5 mM of the respective monosaccharide, e.g., a-methylmannoside for ConA or GlcNAc for WGA, cf. Table 2.16), is recommended. 

Antibodies directed against recombinant erythropoietin have been obtained from rabbits immunized with the hormone and Freunds complete adjuvant [64], Two sets of antibodies are present in the serum of rabbits that have been immunized, Fig. (3C). The results of oxidation of the erythropoietin with periodate, Fig. (25A), reaction of the antibodies with lectins of known carbohydrate specificity, Fig. (25B) and inhibition of the antibodies with the structural monosaccharide residues of the hormone, Fig. (26), have established the types of antibodies to be anti-carbohydrate antibodies and the immunodeterminants for these antibodies are oligosaccharides with the following structure N-acetyl neuraminyl a(2->3)... 

Enzyme-lectin histochemistry has many features in common with EIH. Lectins are of non-immune origin but recognize fine differences in complex saccharide structures. Usually lectin specificity is expressed as reactivity to a given monosaccharide, but it has been demonstrated repeatedly (e.g.. Debray et al., 1981) that this is an oversimplification (Section 3.4). It is becoming increasingly clear that cellular differentiation, maturation and neoplastic transformation are associated with changes of carbohydrate composition of the cell membrane (Ponder, 1983). 

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