Identification of a carbohydrate-binding site in Physarum haemagglutinin I

Carbohydrate-binding peptides from trypsin-digests of Physarum lectins (haemagglutinins I and II) were isolated by affinity column chromatography. The amino acid sequence of the peptide fragment from haemagglutinin I was determined to be 48TVHQSWY54. A similar amino acid sequence was found in the peptide fragment from haemagglutinin II, in which alignment of valine, histidine, tryptophan and tyrosine was identical. Deletion of the heptapeptide sequence (TVHQSWY) by site-directed mutation abolished the haemagglutinating activity. The replacement of Trp53 by alanine resulted in a complete loss of the haemagglutinating activity, suggesting that the tryptophan residue in the heptapeptide sequence is essential for carbohydrate binding.