Lectins (hemagglutinins) in the gut of the important disease vectors.
The review is devoted to the gut lectins/hemagglutinins of the following representatives of important disease vectors: ticks, kissing-bugs, mosquitoes, sandflies and tsetse flies. The paper surveys the recent knowledge on these carbohydrate binding factors with respect to their structural and functional properties, and their significance for pathogen/parasite transmission by the blood-sucking arthropods. Recent results suggest that in most vectors the gut lectin activities are blood-meal enhanced, might participate in blood-meal processing and digestion and could serve as antibacterial and antiparasitic agents.
Grubhoffer
L
L
Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic.
Hypsa
V
V
Volf
P
P
D000818:Animals; D001179:Arthropod Vectors; D004199:Disease Vectors; D007303:Insect Vectors; D007422:Intestines / Q000737:chemistry*; D037102:Lectins / Q000032:analysis*
D037102:Lectins