Structural aspects and biomedical applications of microfungal lectins.

Lectins are unique biorecognition molecules that identify cell surface carbohydrates/glycoproteins and play significant role in various interactions. They are ubiquitous glycan-specific proteins/glycoproteins of non-immune origin. Amongst microfungi, lectins have been widely reported from aspergilli, penicilli, Fusarium sp., etc., however a plethora of genera still remains unexplored. Microfungal lectins have wide diversity in their haemagglutination and carbohydrate specificity. They also exhibit great variations in their structural organization which influences lectin-glycan interactions. The present review summarizes the sources, characteristics and structural diversity of microfungal lectins. Prospective biomedical applications of microfungal lectins as anticancer, mitogenic, immunomodulatory, antioxidant and therapeutic agents have been discussed extensively.