Gupta D, Brewer C F
Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461.
Biochemistry. 1994 May 10;33(18):5526-30. doi: 10.1021/bi00184a022.
The galactose-specific 14-kDa family of animals lectins are an evolutionary conserved group of proteins that have been implicated in a wide variety of biological processes including cell proliferation, adhesion, and transformation. The present study demonstrates that the dimeric 14-kDa calf spleen lectin forms homogeneous aggregated cross-linked complexes with asialofetuin, a glycoprotein with multiple carbohydrate chains possessing terminal galactose residues, in the presence of other lectins with similar specificities and cross-linking activities. Several galactose-specific plant lectins also form homogeneous aggregated cross-linked complexes with ASF. These results demonstrate a new source of specificity for the 14-kDa family of vertebrate lectins, namely, the ability to selectively cross-link and aggregate glycoproteins in mixed systems. The results have important biological implications for the interactions of multivalent lectins and glycoconjugates, as well as the thermodynamic interactions of multivalent molecules in general.
动物凝集素的半乳糖特异性14 kDa家族是一组进化保守的蛋白质，它们参与了包括细胞增殖、黏附及转化等多种生物学过程。本研究表明，在存在其他具有相似特异性和交联活性的凝集素的情况下，二聚体14 kDa小牛脾脏凝集素与去唾液酸胎球蛋白（一种具有多个含末端半乳糖残基碳水化合物链的糖蛋白）形成均匀的聚集交联复合物。几种半乳糖特异性植物凝集素也与去唾液酸胎球蛋白形成均匀的聚集交联复合物。这些结果证明了脊椎动物凝集素14 kDa家族的一种新的特异性来源，即能够在混合系统中选择性地交联和聚集糖蛋白。这些结果对于多价凝集素与糖缀合物的相互作用以及一般多价分子的热力学相互作用具有重要的生物学意义。
