Characterization of Lectin from Colpomenia Sinuosa and Effect of Physico Chemical Parameters on Haemagglutination Activity

Abstract

Lectin is a protein which has the ability to bind carbohydrates and named as haemagglutinin. Lectins with specific carbohydrate specificity have been purified from various plant tissues and other organisms and exploited extensively in many aspects of biochemistry and biomedicine. Similar to land plants, lectins from marine algae appear to be useful in some biological applications. Although several studies on lectins from marine algae have been reported till date, few lectins from algae have been characterized in detail. The present study was focused on the lectin isolated from C.sinuosa. The algal lectin has high sugar specificity with N-acetylglucosamine and higher enzyme activity with trypsin. This lectin was identified as CaCl2 dependent – ‘C’ type lectin and was sensitive to EDTA. Higher H.A titre value was observed with CaCl2 and the lower with MnCl2 and ZnCl2 . Significant lectin activity was observed between pH 7 to 8 and temperature between 20 to 40 O C