Abstract
Fungal lectins are a large family of carbohydrate-binding proteins with no enzymatic activity. They play fundamental biological roles in the interactions of fungi with their environment and are found in many different species across the fungal kingdom. In particular, their contribution to defense against feeders has been emphasized, and when secreted, lectins may be involved in the recognition of bacteria, fungal competitors and specific host plants. Carbohydrate specificities and quaternary structures vary widely, but evidence for an evolutionary relationship within the different classes of fungal lectins is supported by a high degree of amino acid sequence identity. The UniLectin3D database contains 194 fungal lectin 3D structures, of which 129 are characterized with a carbohydrate ligand. Using the UniLectin3D lectin classification system, 109 lectin sequence motifs were defined to screen 1223 species deposited in the genomic portal MycoCosm of the Joint Genome Institute. The resulting 33,485 putative lectin sequences are organized in MycoLec, a publicly available and searchable database. These results shed light on the evolution of the lectin gene families in fungi.
Highlights
Fungi are unicellular or multicellular organisms found in terrestrial, marine and aquatic ecosystems
The known 3D structures of fungal lectins are partitioned in 12 different folds, database), expanding expanding classes
Except for the ß-prism III fold, identified fungal lectin folds are shared with other organisms
Summary
Fungi are unicellular or multicellular organisms found in terrestrial, marine and aquatic ecosystems. They adopt a wide range of ecological lifestyles (e.g., modes of nutrition) along the saprotrophism/mutualism/parasitism continuum [1,2,3]. Saprotrophic, symbiotic and pathogenic fungal species compete or cooperate with multiple bacteria, fungal, plant or animal species. Self/non-selfdiscrimination is at the very core of the fungal hyphae development and involves surfacesurface molecular interactions [4]. The recognition of animal or plant surfaces play a key role in the pathogenic or mutualistic fungal symbioses. These interactions rely on a wide range of secreted proteins that include lectins
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