植物凝集素的超级家族

凝集素是一类专一、可逆地和糖类结合的蛋白质，迄今已经分离纯化并测定了氨基酸序列的凝集素已有不少，一些凝集素以及它们与配体糖相互结合的复合物的高级结构也已经给出，许多工作已深入到基因水平．就目前已有的知识，说明植物凝集素是一个庞大的蛋白质家族．

The Superfamily of Plant Lectins

Lectins are a kind of carbohydrate-binding proteins. Though they differ in their carbohydrate specificities, they resemble each other in many physicochemical properties. By now, a lot of plant lectins have been sequenced, and some of their three-dimensional structures have been established. A few lectin genes have been cloned. Comparison of their primary sequences and tertiary structures, we can find that plant lectins are several large groups of homologous proteins belonging to a superfamily.