Glycoproteins of axonal transport: polypeptides interacting with the lectin from Aleuria aurantia.

The interaction between a new fucose-specific lectin from Aleuria aurantia and brain glycoproteins is described. It was found that several different glycoproteins could bind to a column of immobilized Aleuria lectin and that the bound material could be eluted with low concentrations of L-fucose. The polypeptide pattern of the bound glycoproteins differed markedly from that of unbound glycoproteins. A major portion of rapidly transported fucose-labelled glycoproteins from retinal ganglion cells bound to the Aleuria lectin. This chromatographic procedure led to a considerable purification of the rapidly transported glycoproteins. The major labelled, rapidly transported polypeptide which bound to the Aleuria lectin had an apparent mol. wt. of 114,000.