Biomaterial Database

A second form of collagenous lectin from the tunicate, Styela plicata. 2006

Peter Green, and Agnes Luty, and Sham Nair, and Jane Radford, and David Raftos

Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.

This study characterised a 90 kDa lectin from an invertebrate chordate, the tunicate Styela plicata. One- and two-dimensional electrophoresis showed that the apparent molecular weight of this protein is maintained under both reducing and non-reducing conditions, suggesting that its native form is a monomer. The 90 kDa lectin was localised within a single type of hemocyte (morula cells), but was secreted from those cells when tunicates were challenged with the inflammatory elicitor, zymosan. Functional studies showed that the 90 kDa protein binds to galactose-based sugars in a divalent cation-dependent manner. Amino acid composition analysis and N-terminal amino acid sequencing indicated that the 90 kDa lectin is related to a previously characterised, collagenous lectin from S. plicata, splic43. However, peptide mass fingerprinting identified numerous differences between the two proteins. This suggests that the 90 kDa molecule represents a novel protein that is involved in host defence.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009028	Morula	An early embryo that is a compact mass of about 16 BLASTOMERES. It resembles a cluster of mulberries with two types of cells, outer cells and inner cells. Morula is the stage before BLASTULA in non-mammalian animals or a BLASTOCYST in mammals.	Morulas
D009994	Osmolar Concentration	The concentration of osmotically active particles in solution expressed in terms of osmoles of solute per liter of solution. Osmolality is expressed in terms of osmoles of solute per kilogram of solvent.	Ionic Strength,Osmolality,Osmolarity,Concentration, Osmolar,Concentrations, Osmolar,Ionic Strengths,Osmolalities,Osmolar Concentrations,Osmolarities,Strength, Ionic,Strengths, Ionic
D002413	Cations, Divalent	Positively charged atoms, radicals or groups of atoms with a valence of plus 2, which travel to the cathode or negative pole during electrolysis.	Divalent Cations
D005690	Galactose	An aldohexose that occurs naturally in the D-form in lactose, cerebrosides, gangliosides, and mucoproteins. Deficiency of galactosyl-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (GALACTOSE-1-PHOSPHATE URIDYL-TRANSFERASE DEFICIENCY DISEASE) causes an error in galactose metabolism called GALACTOSEMIA, resulting in elevations of galactose in the blood.	D-Galactose,Galactopyranose,Galactopyranoside,D Galactose
D006458	Hemolymph	The blood/lymphlike nutrient fluid of some invertebrates.	Hemolymphs
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D014561	Urochordata	A subphylum of chordates intermediate between the invertebrates and the true vertebrates. It includes the Ascidians.	Ascidia,Tunicata,Ascidiacea,Ascidians,Sea Squirts,Tunicates,Urochordates,Ascidian,Sea Squirt,Squirt, Sea,Tunicate,Urochordate
D015054	Zymosan		Zymosan A
D015854	Up-Regulation	A positive regulatory effect on physiological processes at the molecular, cellular, or systemic level. At the molecular level, the major regulatory sites include membrane receptors, genes (GENE EXPRESSION REGULATION), mRNAs (RNA, MESSENGER), and proteins.	Receptor Up-Regulation,Upregulation,Up-Regulation (Physiology),Up Regulation
D020033	Protein Isoforms	Different forms of a protein that may be produced from different GENES, or from the same gene by ALTERNATIVE SPLICING.	Isoform,Isoforms,Protein Isoform,Protein Splice Variant,Splice Variants, Protein,Protein Splice Variants,Isoform, Protein,Isoforms, Protein,Splice Variant, Protein,Variant, Protein Splice,Variants, Protein Splice