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Lectins from plants of the Diocleinae subtribe often exhibit specificity towards mannose/glucose and derived sugars, with some plants also displaying a second lectin specific to lactose/GalNAc. Here, we present a novel lectin from Collaea speciosa, named CsL, that displays specificity for GlcNAc/glucose. The lectin was extracted from Collaea speciosa seeds and purified by a single chromatographic step on a Sephadex G-50 matrix. In solution, the lectin appears as a dimeric protein composed of 25 kDa monomers. The protein is stable at pH 7-8 and dependent on divalent cations. CsL maintained its agglutination activity after heating to 90 °C for 1 h. Glycan array studies revealed that CsL binds to N-glycans with terminal GlcNAc residues, chitobiose and chitotriose moieties. The partial amino acid sequence of the lectin is similar to that of some lactose-specific lectins from the same subtribe. In contrast to other ConA-like lectins, CsL is not toxic to Artemia. Because of its remarkably different properties and specificity, this lectin could be the first member of a new group inside the Diocleinae lectins., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The adsorption of proteins on surfaces often results in a change of their structural behavior and consequently, a loss of bioactivity. One experimental method to study interactions on a molecular level is single molecular force spectroscopy that permits to measure forces down to the pico-newton range. In this work, the binding force between human serum albumin (HSA), covalently immobilized on glutaraldehyde modified gold substrates, and ibuprofen sodium salt was studied by means of single molecular force spectroscopy. First of all, a protocol was established to functionalize atomic force microscopy (AFM) tips with ibuprofen. The immobilization protocol was additionally tested by quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) and contact angle measurements. AFM was used to characterize the adsorption of HSA on gold substrates, which lead to a packed monolayer of thickness slightly lower than the reported value in solution. Finally, single molecule spectroscopy results were used to characterize the binding force between albumin and ibuprofen and calculate the distance of the transition state (0.6 nm) and the dissociation rate constant (0.055 s(-1)). The results might indicate that part of the adsorbed protein still preserves its functionality upon adsorption., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The regioselectivity of glycosylation of a 4,6-diol system in the β-mannopyranosyl unit of a N-glycan pentasaccharide core structure is found to be strongly dependent on the structure of the glycosyl donor. While glycosylation with a 2-O-acetyl-D-mannopyranosyl trichloroacetimidate and with a d-mannopyranosyl (α1→3) 2-O-acetyl mannopyranosyl trichoroacetimidate regioselectively occurs at the primary OH-6 position, reaction with d-mannopyranosyl (α1→6) mannopyranosyl 2-O-benzoyl, 2-O-acetyl and 2-O-pivaloyl trichloroacetimidate results in approximately 1:1 mixture of regioisomers at primary OH-6 and secondary OH-4 positions., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)