title: The bark of Robinia pseudoacacia contains a complex mixture of lectins. Characterization of the proteins and the cDNA clones.
abstract: Two lectins were isolated from the inner bark of Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust). The first (and major) lectin (called RPbAI) is composed of five isolectins that originate from the association of 31.5- and 29-kD polypeptides into tetramers. In contrast, the second (minor) lectin (called RPbAII) is a hometetramer composed of 26-kD subunits. The cDNA clones encoding the polypeptides of RPbAI and RPbAII were isolated and their sequences determined. Apparently all three polypeptides are translated from mRNAs of approximately 1.2 kb. Alignment of the deduced amino acid sequences of the different clones indicates that the 31.5- and 29-kD RPbAI polypeptides show approximately 80% sequence identity and are homologous to the previously reported legume seed lectins, whereas the 26-kD RPbAII polypeptide shows only 33% sequence identity to the previously described legume lectins. Modeling the 31.5-kD subunit of RPbAI predicts that its three-dimensional structure is strongly related to the three-dimensional models that have been determined thus far for a few legume lectins. Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA isolated from Robinia has revealed that the Robinia bark lectins are the result of the expression of a small family of lectin genes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Phytopathology and Plant Protection, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Van Damme
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barre
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smeets
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Torrekens
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Van Leuven
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rougé
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Peumans
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000032:analysis; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D037102:Lectins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D037121:Plant Lectins; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014197:Trees / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002241:Carbohydrates; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D037102:Lectins; D037121:Plant Lectins; C047720:Robinia lectin