Bhavika Tandel

https://doi.org/10.64823/ijter.2605030

Lectins are carbohydrate- binding proteins that are widely distributed in a variety of biological systems including bacteria, fungi, plants, animals, and humans. These proteins possess the ability to recognize and bind specific carbohydrate molecules through reversible and non-covalent interactions. Unlike enzymes, lectins do not catalyze chemical reactions but instead interact specifically with sugar residues present on glycoproteins, glycolipids, and polysaccharides. Due to their high carbohydrate specificity and their ability to agglutinate erythrocytes, lectins exhibit significant hemagglutinating activity. In general, lectins are considered proteins of non-immune origin that can recognize and bind distinct carbohydrate structures. Because of these properties, lectins have been widely applied in several biological and biomedical fields. Lectins typically contain at least one non-catalytic structural domain known as the Carbohydrate Recognition Domain (CRD). The Carbohydrate Recognition Domain determines the carbohydrate specificity of the lectin molecule and enables interaction with glycoproteins and glycolipids present on the surface of erythrocytes, resulting in visible agglutination. In addition to their hemagglutinating properties, several lectins also exhibit antimicrobial activity. This biological activity is mainly attributed to their ability to interact with carbohydrate components present on microbial cell surfaces. Such interactions may lead to disruption of cell membrane integrity, inhibition of microbial adhesion, or interference with biofilm formation. Due to the increasing demand for economical diagnostic tools and alternative antimicrobial agents, lectins have attracted considerable research interest. The present study was therefore designed to extract and characterize lectins from selected plant and fungal sources and to evaluate their hemagglutination and antibacterial activity. The findings of this study are expected to contribute some in the field of development of natural lectin-based application in medical diagnostics & antimicrobial research.