Publication: How galectins have become multifunctional proteins
Authors
García Caballero, Gabriel ; Kaltner, Herbert ; Kutzner, Tanja J. ; Ludwig, Anna-Kristin ; Manning, Joachim C. ; Schmidt, Sebastian ; Sinowatz, Fred ; Gabius, Hans-Joachim
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Publisher
Universidad de Murcia, Departamento de Biologia Celular e Histiologia
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.14670/HH-18-199
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
Having identified glycans of cellular
glycoconjugates as versatile molecular messages, their
recognition by sugar receptors (lectins) is a fundamental
mechanism within the flow of biological information.
This type of molecular interplay is increasingly revealed
to be involved in a wide range of (patho)physiological
processes. To do so, it is a vital prerequisite that a lectin
(and its expression) can develop more than a single skill,
that is the general ability to bind glycans. By studying
the example of vertebrate galectins as a model, a total of
five relevant characteristics is disclosed: i) access to
intra- and extracellular sites, ii) fine-tuned gene
regulation (with evidence for co-regulation of
counterreceptors) including the existence of variants due
to alternative splicing or single nucleotide
polymorphisms, iii) specificity to distinct glycans from
the glycome with different molecular meaning, iv)
binding capacity also to peptide motifs at different sites
on the protein and v) diversity of modular architecture.
They combine to endow these lectins with the capacity
to serve as multi-purpose tools. Underscoring the arising
broad-scale significance of tissue lectins, their numbers
in terms of known families and group members have
steadily grown by respective research that therefore
unveiled a well-stocked toolbox. The generation of a
network of (ga)lectins by evolutionary diversification
affords the opportunity for additive/synergistic or
antagonistic interplay in situ, an emerging aspect of
(ga)lectin functionality. It warrants close scrutiny. The
realization of the enormous potential of combinatorial
permutations using the five listed features gives further
efforts to understand the rules of functional
glycomics/lectinomics a clear direction.
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Citation
Histology and Histopathology Vol. 35, nº6 (2020)
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