Abstract
The presence of carbohydrate-binding proteins, namely lectins, -galactosidases and amylases, was determined in aqueous extracts of plants collected in Uruguay. Twenty-six extracts were prepared from 15 Uruguayan plants belonging to 12 Phanerogam families. Among them, 18 extracts caused hemagglutination (HAG) that was inhibited by mono- and disaccharides in 13 cases, indicating the presence of lectins. The other 8 extracts did not cause any HAG with the four systems used to detect HAG activity (rabbit and mouse red cells, trypsin-treated rabbit and mouse red cells). For the extracts prepared from Solanum commersonii, HAG activity and HAG inhibition were similar for those prepared from tubers, leaves and fruits, with the chitocompounds being responsible for all the inhibitions. Purification of the S. commersonii tuber lectin was carried out by affinity chromatography on asialofetuin-Sepharose, and SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions gave a single band of Mr of approximately 80 kDa. The monomer N-acetylglucosamine did not inhibit HAG induced by the purified lectin, but chitobiose inhibited HAG at 24 mM and chitotriose inhibited it at 1 mM. -Galactosidase activity was detected in leaves and stems of Cayaponia martiana, and in seeds from Datura ferox. Only traces of amylase activity were detected in some of the extracts analyzed. The present screening increases knowledge about the occurrence of carbohydrate-binding proteins present in regional plants.
Highlights
Because of the essential role of proteincarbohydrate interactions in a wide variety of biological recognition processes, these interactions have been and still are a subject of permanent interest
In seeds and other storage organs, lectins often represent a major fraction of the soluble proteins and it has been suggested that they might function as storage proteins, this postulate cannot answer the question of why lectins possess carbohydrate-binding sites of high specificity [2]
In the present study we have explored for the first time the presence of carbohydrate-binding proteins, namely lectins, ß-galactosidases and amylases, in aqueous extracts prepared from plants belonging to the Phanerogam families, whose distribution area is our country, Uruguay
Summary
Because of the essential role of proteincarbohydrate interactions in a wide variety of biological recognition processes, these interactions have been and still are a subject of permanent interest. In the present study we have explored for the first time the presence of carbohydrate-binding proteins, namely lectins, ß-galactosidases and amylases, in aqueous extracts prepared from plants belonging to the Phanerogam families, whose distribution area is our country, Uruguay. HAG: hemagglutination; HAG50%: the extract dilution one below the highest dilution not able to agglutinate red blood cells; LU: lectin units, as defined in Material and Methods; M: mouse red cells; R: rabbit red cells; SHA: specific hemagglutination activity (LU/mg protein); TM: trypsin-treated mouse red cells; TR: trypsintreated rabbit red cells.
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Schedule a callMore From: Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologicas
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