Correlation between carbohydrate-binding specificity and amino acid sequence of carbohydrate-binding regions of Cytisus-type anti-H(O) lectins.

A carbohydrate-binding peptide of the di-N-acetylchitobiose-binding Cytisus sessilifolius anti-H(O) lectin I (CSA-I) was isolated from the endoproteinase Asp-N digest of CSA-I by affinity chromatography on a column of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine oligomer-Sepharose (GlcNAc oligomer-Sepharose). The amino acid sequence of the carbohydrate-binding peptide of CSA-I was determined to be DTYFGKTYNPW using a gas-phase protein sequencer. This sequence corresponds to the sequence from Asp-129 to Trp-139 based on the primary structure of CSA-I, and shows a high degree of homology to those of the putative carbohydrate-binding peptide of the Laburnum alpinum lectin I (LAA-I) (DTYFGKAYNPW) and of the Ulex europaeus lectin II (UEA-II) (DSYFGKTYNPW). The binding of these three anti-H(O) lectins is known to be inhibited by di-N-acetylchitobiose but not by L-fucose. These results strongly suggest that there is a good correlation between the carbohydrate-binding specificity and the amino acid sequence of the carbohydrate-binding regions of di-N-acetylchitobiose-binding lectins.