Stereochemical structure recognized by the L-fucose-specific hemagglutinin produced by Streptomyces sp.

A hemagglutinin has been purified 4000-fold from the culture filtrate of a strain of Streptomyces by affinity chromatography. The purified preparation was judged to be homogeneous by gel electrophoresis and its molecular weight was estimated to be about 70 000 by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It may exhibit its full hemagglutinating activity in the monomer form. This hemagglutinin strongly agglutinated human blood group O erythrocytes and was inhibited by L-fucose. It was, however, distinct from the known L-fucose-specific hemagglutinins; first, the hemagglutinating activity of the purified preparation was more than 100-times stronger than that of others; second, D-mannose was a potent inhibitor of this hemagglutinin besides L-fucose but not or scarcely inhibitory to others; and third, p-nitrophenyl-beta-L-fucoside was more inhibitory to this hemagglutinin than p-nitrophenyl-alpha-L-fucoside as opposed to the case of others.