A lectin is a plant (usually seed) or animal protein that affects agglutination, precipitation, or other phenomena resembling the action of specific antibody, but that is not an antibody in that it was not evoked by an antigenic stimulus.
Protein that binds tightly to a specific sugar. Abundant lectins derived from plant seeds are often used as affinity reagents to purify glycoproteins or to detect them on the surface of cells.
Naturally produced proteins or glycoproteins that can bind with carbohydrates or sugars to form stable complexes.
a type of protein which binds specifically to sugars and glycoproteins on the surface of many mammalian cells.
A group of plant proteins that can bind to specific oligosaccharides on the surface of cells, causing the cells to clump together.
A glycoprotein that binds sugars and agglutinates cells.
any of several plant glycoproteins that act like specific antibodies but are not antibodies in that they are not evoked by an antigenic stimulus
a sugar-binding protein of non-immune origin that agglutinates cells or
proteins or glycoprotien (protein with a sugar group attached). Different lectins bind with different sugars. When normal cells mutate to become cancer cells their surface sugars change, the mistletoe lectin attaches itself to these cells and cause apoptosis, a natural process of self-destruction that occurs in mutated cells. In cancerous cells this process is blocked, the cells keep dividing to form tumors.
A protein which specifically binds a carbohydrate moiety. For example, peanut lectin binds specifically to GalNAc-Gal.
A complex molecule that has both protein and sugars. Lectins are able to bind to the outside of a cell and cause biochemical changes in it. Lectins are made by both animals and plants.
A plant protein that binds to certain sugar residues in glycoproteins. ( 10)
Any protein that binds tightly to specific sugars. Lectins can be used in affinity chromatography to purify glycoproteins or as reagents to detect them in situ.
Lectins are carbohydrate binding proteins or glycoproteins which are highly specific for their sugar moieties. The name ‘lectin’ is derived from the Latin word legere, meaning ‘to select’. Although they were first discovered more than 100 years ago in plants, they are now known to be present throughout nature.
