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Isolation and characterisation of a fourth hemagglutinin from the red alga, Gracilaria verrucosa, from Japan

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Abstract

Isolation and characterisation of marine algal hemagglutinins or lectins are essential for their potential industrial application as specific carbohydrate affinity ligands. The phosphate buffer extract of the red alga, Gracilaria verrucosa (Huds.) Papenfuss (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) from Japan is known to contain three different hemagglutinins. The extract of the alga collected in March 1993 from Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, was purified by ammonium sulphate fractionation, ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography. Using gel filtration, two peaks were obtained (hereafter Peak 1 and Peak 2) which differed in molecular size and hemagglutinating activity against horse erythrocytes. Peak 1 corresponded to the known high molecular weight hemagglutinin, H-GVH. Peak 2 contained large amounts of hexose and sulphate along with a small amount of protein. It had a low molecular weight (gel filtration) similar to that of two of the previously reported G.verrucosa hemagglutinins but differed in its electrophoretic behaviour. Peak 2 is therefore a fourth hemagglutinin. Its activity was not inhibited by any of the monosaccharides tested but by the complex glycoproteins such as asialofetuin and fetuin. It had no divalent cation requirement for hemagglutination. The properties of this novel hemagglutinin could prove useful in industrial applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Resources Department, Shikoku National Industrial Research Institute, Hayashi, Takamatsu, Kagawa, 761-03, Japan

    Hirotaka Kakita, Satoshi Fukuoka, Hideki Obika & Hiroshi Kamishima

Authors
  1. Hirotaka Kakita
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  2. Satoshi Fukuoka
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  3. Hideki Obika
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  4. Hiroshi Kamishima
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Kakita, H., Fukuoka, S., Obika, H. et al. Isolation and characterisation of a fourth hemagglutinin from the red alga, Gracilaria verrucosa, from Japan. Journal of Applied Phycology 11, 49–56 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008011616001

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