Wheat lectin

Tighter binding is observed if additional mannose residues are present in an oligosaccharide.The protein also has specific binding sites for Ca + and for a transition metal ion such as Mn +. Soybean lectin binds D-N-acetylgalactosamine and o-galactose units, while wheat lectin is specific for o-N-acetylglucosamine. 

Non-toxic lectins are lectins of garlic, onions, leeks, tomatoes and amaranth. Of the common lectins, those of peanuts, lentils, peas, common beans and soya beans are slightly toxic, wheat lectins are moderately toxic, and lectins of some beans (such as Jack beans) are highly toxic, while castor seed lectins are lethal (Table 10.21). Some lectins (such as lectins of garlic) have prebiotic effects and inhibit undesirable intestinal microflora Escherichia coli). Often, lectins are not the only toxic substances of the plant material. For example, lectins of soybean seeds participate in their antinutritional and toxic effects at a level of about 25%, but trypsin inhibitors are about 40% and the rest is covered by saponins and other substances. 

Wheat lectin, pollen lectin, latex lectin (prohevein) allergen... 

An intriguing possibility is that the IDGFs could interact as lectins with the insulin receptor itself, which is already known to bind other lectins. Wheat germ... 

Gabor, F., Wirth, M., Jurkovich, B., Theyer, G., Walcher, G., Hamilton, G., Lectin-mediated bioadhesion Proteolytic stability and binding-characteristics of wheat germ agglutinin and Solanum tuberosum lectin on Caco-2, HT-29 and human colonocytes. J Control Release 49, 27-37 (1997). 

Wirth, M., Kneuer, C., Lehr, C.M., Gabor, F., Lectin-mediated drug delivery Discrimination between cytoadhesion and cytoinvasion and evidence for lysosomal accumulation of wheat germ agglutinin in the Caco-2 model. J Drug Target 10,... 

Gabor, F., Klausegger, U., Wirth, M., The interaction between wheat germ agglutinin and other plant lectins with prostate cancer cells Du-145. Int J Pharm 221, 35—47 (2001). 

Recently, Kogel et al. (98) showed that the injection of galactosebinding lectins or the enzyme galactose oxidase into resistant wheat leaves prevented the hypersensitive cell death of penetrated host cells and concomitantly led to increased fungal growth, suggesting a causal relationship between hypersensitive cell death and resistance. 

A report on the inhibitory effect of wheat-genn agglutinin on cellular transport may be relevant to this study, as this lectin binds to 2-aeet-amido-2-deoxy-D-glucose present in the same, L-asparagine-linked class of oligosaccharide that is affected by tunicamycin.549... 

In the purification of lectins, special adsorbents have been employed. The adsorbents have been prepared by attaching specific, carbohydrate ligands to activated supports.41-106,157 An affinity adsorbent prepared from chitobiose and (2-aminoethyl)-Bio-Gel was used to purify the 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose-binding lectin from wheat germ. The data for the purification of this lectin are shown in Fig. 6. 

Lectins have been used for purifying glycoproteins present in cell membranes. The lectin of wheat germ was immobilized on agarose ac-... 

Fig. 6.—Elution Pattern for Wheat-germ Lectin from an Adsorbent Prepared from N,N -Diacetylchitobiose and (2-Aminoethyl)-Bio-Gel by Reductive Animation. [Initial elution with phosphate buffer in saline, followed by elution with 0.1 M 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose in phosphate buffer and saline (arrow) (see Ref. 25).]...

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