The Primary Study On Lectins From Crustacean

Serums from 12 species of crustaceans were tected for agglutinating activity using 12 native and enzyme-treated erythrocytes of human and animal, 8 species of unicellular algae and 10 kinds of unicellular microbe. Besides, the glyco-inhibiting action and other physical chemical properties of the lectins were studied. The results show that the most sensitive to agglutination by serums among three type of cells were individual from Coturnix coturnix,Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, The sensitivity of the erythrocytes to lectins of crustaceans had changed while were treated with enzyme. It is found that both serums and muscles of crustaceans contain lectins. Further more, animal erythrocytes specificity, carbohydrate-binding specificity, thermostability, and influence of pH and Ca2+ to the agglutinative activity were compared among the lectins of serums and muscles from 5 crustaceans. The results showed that there were evident difference in these aspects between serum and muscle from the same crustacean, and it indicated that the lectins of serum and muscle from the crustacean were different in nature. When the interaction among lectins were studied, we found there were three kind of interrelation between every two lectins ( inter-reinforce, inter-weaken, inter-inhibiting) .The serum lectins of crustaceans had been purified by fractionation of high concentrated ammonium sulfate and chromatography on the Sephadex G-100 colum. In the end, pure lectin of Charybdis feriatus was gained and its molecular weight is 40.8kD. The amino acid composition of the lectin was analysed.