Azospirillum brasilense Sp7 produces an outer-membrane lectin that specifically binds to surface-exposed extracellular polysaccharide produced by the bacterium.

Azospirillum sp promotes the growth of many important crop plants. We demonstrated lectin binding activity in outer-membrane protein extracts of A. brasilense Sp7 by hemagglutination assays. The lectin specifically recognised the exopolysaccharide (EPS) produced by aggregated cells. Affinity chromatography using EPS-Sepharose was used to identify a 67 kDa outer-membrane lectin (OML) that recognised a binding region in the extracellular polysaccharide. Results show the specific recognition and binding between EPS and OML. The potential relationship between cell-to-cell aggregation and the OML-EPS interaction is discussed.