Research advances and prospects of legume lectins

• Published in: Journal of biosciences Vol. 46; no. 4; p. 104
• Main Authors: Katoch, Rajan, Tripathi, Ankur
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Springer India 01.12.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agglutination; Amino acid sequence; Amino acid sequences; Amino acids; Antifungal Agents - pharmacology; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - pharmacology; Antiviral Agents - pharmacology; Binding; Biomedical and Life Sciences; biomedical research; Biomedicine; Carbohydrate Metabolism; Carbohydrates; Cell Biology; Chromatography, Affinity; Conserved sequence; Crop improvement; DNA; Drug Delivery Systems; Fabaceae - chemistry; germplasm conservation; Glycoconjugates; glycomics; Homology; Lectins; Legumes; Life Sciences; Medical research; Microbiology; Plant Lectins - chemistry; Plant Lectins - classification; Plant Lectins - metabolism; Plant Lectins - pharmacology; Plant Sciences; Polysaccharides; Proteins; Quaternary; Review; Sequencing; Specificity; Structure-function relationships; Structures; Variability; Zoology; antiviral function; carbohydrate specificity; Legume lectins; biological functions; biomedical research
• ISSN: 0250-5991; 0973-7138; 0973-7138
• DOI: 10.1007/s12038-021-00225-8

Lectins are widely distributed proteins having ability of binding selectively and reversibly with carbohydrates moieties and glycoconjugates. Although lectins have been reported from different biological sources, the legume lectins are the best-characterized family of plant lectins. Legume lectins are a large family of homologous proteins with considerable similarity in amino acid sequence and their tertiary structures. Despite having strong sequence conservation, these lectins show remarkable variability in carbohydrate specificity and quaternary structures. The ability of legume lectins in recognizing glycans and glycoconjugates on cells and other intracellular structures make them a valuable research tool in glycomic research. Due to variability in binding with glycans, glycoconjugates and multiple biological functions, legume lectins are the subject of intense research for their diverse application in different fields such as glycobiology, biomedical research and crop improvement. The present review specially focuses on structural and functional characteristics of legume lectins along with their potential areas of application.