The distribution of glycoconjugates in the chicken mandibular gland was studied by means of light microscopic histochemical methods. The staining procedures employed were horseradish peroxidase conjugated lectin, Alcian blue pH 2.5-periodic acid-Schiff (AB pH 2.5-PAS), and high iron diamine-alcian blue pH 2.5 (HID-AB pH 2.5). The lectins used in the present study were Concanavalin A (Con A), Ri...

The interaction of glycoproteins of rough and smooth microsomal and Golgi membranes with Sepharose-bound lectins has been studied. One of these lectins was a crude preparation from wheat germ lipase which was found to bind primarily to N-acetyl neuraminic acid. Rough microsomes, smooth microsomes and Golgi membranes contain glycoproteins which bind to Concanavalin A (Con A specific for mannose ...

Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) stimulated neutrophils to produce significant levels of luminol-dependent chemiluminescence (CL). Since WGA is known to bind N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) oligomers and N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA), we attempted to determine which binding property of WGA is essential for induction of CL. The succinylated form of WGA (SuWGA), which is no longer able to bind NANA, was...

Although muscle cell fusion was shown to be an energy-requiring process, release of myoblasts from an EGTA fusion block could be accomplished with Earle's balanced salt solution (containing 1.8 mM Ca++) free of glucose or any other energy-produced metabolite. The effect of concanavalin A, abrin, and the lectins from wheat germ, soybean, and Lens culinaris on myoblast fusion was examined with sy...

Separate treatment of PC12h cells with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and with epidermal growth factor (EGF) induced a selective decrease in the incorporation of radioactive phosphate into a 100,000-dalton soluble protein during phosphorylation with (gamma-32P)ATP of soluble extracts from the cells, as was seen previously with nerve growth factor (NGF). This 100,000-dalton soluble protei...

The use of lectin cytochemistry together with proteolytic digestion techniques to partially characterize lectin binding sites of several intracellular compartments in frog photoreceptors was studied. Uniform access of reagents to all intracellular compartments was obtained by performing the experiments directly on semithin sections of retinal tissue embedded in a hydrophilic plastic resin. Prot...

In this study, we revealed that the lectin wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) and its specific binding sugars, N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuAc) and Nacetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), inhibited mating pair formation in Paramecium caudatum. The concentrations that caused 50% inhibition (IC50) were 17 nM, 3 mM and 30 mM, respectively. Using FITCWGA, it was shown fluorescence-cytochemically that WGA bound to the...

The hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP) regulates the posttranslational modification of nuclear and cytoplasmic protein by O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc). Numerous studies have demonstrated that, in hyperglycemic conditions, excessive glucose flux through this pathway contributes to the development of insulin resistance. The role of the HBP in euglycemia, however, remains largely unk...

The major autolysin Acm2 from the probiotic strain Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1 contains high proportions of alanine, serine, and threonine in its N-terminal so-called AST domain. It has been suggested that this extracellular protein might be glycosylated, but this has not been experimentally verified. We used high-resolution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to study t...

Lectins have been isolated from embryos of Secale cereale (rye) and Hordeum vulgare (barley) by affinity chromatography on immobilized N-acetylglucosamine. Both lectins are dimeric proteins of two identical subunits of mol.wt. 18000. They resemble strongly wheat-germ agglutinin with respect to their chemical, physical, biological and immunological properties.