UniLectin, A One-Stop-Shop to Explore and Study Carbohydrate-Binding Proteins

All eukaryotic cells are covered with a dense layer of glycoconjugates, and the cell walls of bacteria are made of various polysaccharides, putting glycans in key locations for mediating protein-protein interactions at cell interfaces. Glycan function is therefore mainly defined as binding to other molecules, and lectins are proteins that specifically recognize and interact non-covalently with glycans. UniLectin was designed based on insight into the knowledge of lectins, their classification, and their biological role. This modular platform provides a curated and periodically updated classification of lectins along with a set of comparative and visualization tools, as well as structured results of screening comprehensive sequence datasets. UniLectin can be used to explore lectins, find precise information on glycan-protein interactions, and mine the results of predictive tools based on HMM profiles. This usage is illustrated here with two protocols. The first one highlights the fine-tuned role of the O blood group antigen in distinctive pathogen recognition, while the second compares the various bacterial lectin arsenals that clearly depend on living conditions of species even in the same genus. © 2021 The Authors. Current Protocols published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1: Searching for the structural details of lectins binding the O blood group antigen Basic Protocol 2: Comparing the lectomes of related organisms in different environments.