Study on the interactions between animal lectins and carbohydrate chains based on their three-dimensional structures

基于糖链的三维结构，分析了糖结合蛋白（凝集素）与糖链之间的相互作用。结果表明，凝集素结合位点上的氨基酸残基组合可以识别多种糖链，为设计新型的分子识别蛋白提供了有用的信息。此外，研究还表明，糖与凝集素结合后，可能引起构象变化，从而导致细胞进一步的生物活性。

Interactions between carbohydrate-binding proteins (lectins) and carbohydrate chains were analyzed based on their three-dimensional structures. The results demonstrated that that various carbohydrate chains can be recognized by combinations of amino acid residues located in the binding sites of lectins, which provides useful information to design novel molecular-recognition proteins. In addition, it was also revealed that binding of carbohydrates to lectin may induce conformational changes, which lead further biological activities to cells.