Snowdrop lectin (Galanthus nivalis agglutinin; GNA) has been shown previously to be toxic towards rice brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens; BPH) when administered in artificial diet. BPH feeds by phloem abstraction, and causes 'hopper burn', as well as being an important virus vector. To evaluate the potential of the gna gene to confer resistance towards BPH, transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L.)...

An investigation of the sugar groups on recombinant human TSH receptors (TSHR) expressed in CHO-K1 cells and solubilized with detergents is described. Western blotting studies with TSHR monoclonal antibodies showed that the receptor was present principally as two bands with approximate molecular masses of 120 and 100 kDa. Further blotting studies using lectins and/or involving treatment with di...

Despite their importance as pollinators in crops and wild plants, solitary bees have not previously been included in non-target testing of insect-resistant transgenic crop plants. Larvae of many solitary bees feed almost exclusively on pollen and thus could be highly exposed to transgene products expressed in the pollen. The potential effects of pollen from oilseed rape expressing the cysteine ...

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) transmission often results from infection by a single transmitted/founder (T/F) virus. Here, we investigated the sensitivity of T/F HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins (Envs) to microbicide candidate carbohydrate-binding agents (CBAs) griffithsin (GRFT), cyanovirin-N (CV-N) and Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA), showing that T/F Envs demonstrated different ...

The plant lectins from Hippeastrum hybrid (HHA) and Galanthus nivalis (GNA) are 50,000-D tetramers showing specificity for alpha-(1,3) and/or alpha-(1,6)-mannose oligomers. They inhibit HIV-1 infection at a 50% effective concentration of 0.2 to 0.3 microg/ml. Escalating HHA or GNA concentrations (up to 500 microg/ml) led to the isolation of three HIV-1(III(B)) strains in CEM T cell cultures tha...

A novel agglutinin gene was cloned from Arisaema lobatum using SMART RACE-PCR technology. The full-length cDNA of Arisaema lobatum agglutinin (ala) was 1078 bp and contained a 774 bp open reading frame encoding a lectin precursor (proproprotein) of 258 amino acid residues with a 23 aa signal peptide. ALA contained three mannose-binding sites (QXDXNXVXY) with two-conserved domains of 45% identit...

A large number of researches focused on glycoproteins E1 and E2 of hepatitis C virus (HCV) aimed at the development of anti-HCV vaccines and inhibitors. Enhancement of E1/E2 expression and secretion is critical for the characterization of these glycoproteins and thus for subunit vaccine development. In this study, we designed and synthesized three signal peptide sequences based on online progra...

Chloromonas nivalis (Volvocales, Chlorophyceae) is considered a cosmopolitan species of a snow-inhabiting microalga because cysts morphologically identifiable as zygotes of the species are distributed worldwide. However, recent molecular data demonstrated that field-collected cysts identified as the zygotes consist of multiple species. Recently, we demonstrated that species identification of sn...