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Updated: Feb 16, 2026

Functional Characterization of Carboxylesterases in Insecticide Resistant House Flies, Musca Domestica
Published on: August 23, 2018
Functional characterization of chitin-binding lectin from Solanum integrifolium containing anti-fungal and
Chang-Shan Chen1,2, Chun-Yi Chen1,3, Divya Malathy Ravinath1
1Department of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, College of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Background:
Along with the rapid development of glycomic tools, the study of lectin-carbohydrate interactions has expanded, opening the way for applications in the fields of analytic, diagnostic, and drug delivery. Chitin-binding lectins (CBLs) play roles in immune defense against chitin-containing pathogens. CBLs from species of the Solanaceae family, such as tomato, potato and jimsonweed, display different binding specificities to sugar chains containing poly-N-acetyllactosamine.
Results:
In this report, CBLs from Solanum integrifolium were isolated by ion exchange chromatography. The fractions showed hemagglutination activity (HA). The recombinant CBL in the 293F cell culture supernatant was able to inhibit the growth of Rhizoctonia solani and Colletotrichum gloeosporioide. Furthermore, the carbohydrate-binding property of CBLs was confirmed with the inhibition of HA. Binding of CBL to Spodoptera frugiperda (sf21) insect cells can partly be inhibited by N-Acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), which is related to decrease mitochondrial membrane potential of sf21 cells.
Conclusions:
The results showed that CBL exhibited antifungal properties and inhibited insect cell growth, which is directly correlated to the lectin-carbohydrate interaction. Further identification and characterization of CBLs will help to broaden their scope of application in plant defense and in biomedical applications.
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