Seven structurally different murine monoclonal galactan-specific antibodies show identity in their galactosyl-binding subsite arrangements.

The constants of association of seven monoclonal antibodies--each capable of binding a tetrasaccharide fragment of a linear beta(1,6)-D-galactopyranan--were measured with a series of galactosyl-ligands some of which carried deoxy-fluoro groups at selected locations. In these oligosaccharide ligands, the galactosyl residues bearing a fluorine-instead of a hydroxyl-group, cannot bind to the highest-binding subsite, which requires hydrogen-bonding. This forces a shift in the saccharide contact-residues, and in this way the relative affinities of the antibody subsites for individual galactosyl residues could be evaluated and compared with those of the four subsites investigated earlier. Correlation of sequence data, spatial structure of J 539 and binding behaviour leads to the exclusion of the third complementarity determining region (CDR) of the H-chain as partaking in the binding, and shows that the galactopyranan antigen probably binds along the lower periphery of the H-L interface of the antibodies, and does so in a groove-type fashion. Each of the seven antibodies has four subsites C, A, B and D in going from the H-to the L-chain, and the relative affinity for "their" galactosyl residue decreases in the order A greater than B greater than C greater than D. The single sugar-binding subsite A accounts for ca 50% of the total binding free energy of the maximally binding tetrasaccharide determinant in all cases.