Oligosaccharide recognition by the 13 kDa soluble lectin from bovine heart muscle has been investigated by inhibition of binding of the 125I-labelled lectin to trypsin-treated rabbit erythrocytes. The results indicate that the Type 1 (Gal beta 1-3GlcNAc) and the Type 2 (Gal beta 1-4GlcNAc) backbone structures are the basic recognition units, and that the blood-group-H structure, the blood-group-B structure, the ‘B-like’ structure [afucosyl-(blood group B)] and the alpha 2-3 sialylated analogues of the backbone structures can also be accommodated and hence are candidate receptor structures for the lectin. A comparison of available inhibition data on six other soluble beta-galactoside-binding lectins (three from human lung and three from rat lung) has shown some common features among these and the bovine lectin, e.g. in general a stronger reaction with N-acetyl-lactosamine than with lactose, and a lack of reaction with 3-fucosyl-lactose and 6-sialyl-lactose. However, there are distinctive features among the lectins, e.g. differences in relative reactions with the blood-group-A structure, and no two of the lectins appear to be identical in their fine specificities.
