Determination of the carbohydrate-binding site of Bauhinia purpurea lectin by affinity chromatography

To determine the carbohydrate-binding site of Bauhinia purpurea lectin (BPA), a D-galactose- and lactose-binding lectin, a peptide which interacts with lactose was purified from endoproteinase Asp-N digests of BPA by chromatography on a lactose-Sepharose column. It consists of nine amino acids and its amino acid sequence is Asp-Thr-Trp-Pro-Asn-Thr-Glu-Trp-Ser. A tryptic fragment with the ability to interact with lactose was also purified and found to contain this sequence, consisting of nine amino acids. This nonapeptide was aligned in a part of the metal-binding region conserved in all legume lectins. The chemical synthesis of the nonapeptide was carried out by a solid-phase method and the synthetic peptide showed a lactose-specific binding activity in the presence of calcium. A chimeric lectin gene was constructed using a cDNA coding BPA in which the nonapeptide sequence was replaced by the corresponding region of the alpha-D-mannose binding Lens culinaris lectins. Although BPA is specific for beta-D-galactose, the chimeric lectin expressed in Escherichia coli was found to bind alpha-D-mannosyl-bovine serum albumin and this binding was inhibited by D-mannose.