[The purification and properties of an extracellular sialo-specific lectin of Bacillus subtilis 316M].

A simple procedure is proposed for purification of lectin from the culture liquid of non-pathogenic Bacillus subtilis 316M, which includes fractionation with ammonium sulfate and rechromatography on Sepharose CL-6B. The procedure enables a 213-fold purification of lectin with a specific activity of 2560 U/mg protein and 51% recovery in activity. According to gel-filtration through Sepharose the lectin has a molecular weight of 190 kDa. It consists of two types of subunits with hemagglutinating activity. The lectin is highly specific to N-glycolylneuraminic and N-acetylneuraminic acids and fructose 1.6-biphosphate.