The purification and properties of the lectin from potato tubers, a hydroxyproline-containing glycoprotein.

1. Potato lectin has been purified and shown to be a glycoprotein containing about 50% of carbohydrate. Most of the sugar residues (92%) are arabinose; small amounts of galactose, glucose and glucosamine are also present. 2. The most abundant amino acid is hydroxyproline (16% of the residues), 11.5% of the residues are half-cystine and phenylalanine is absent. The lectin also contains about one residue/molecule of a basic amino acid, not usually found in proteins, which has been tentatively identified as ornithine. There is indirect evidence that the components of the glycoprotein are linked through hydroxyproline and arabinose. 3. By gel filtration in 6m-guanidine-HCl on Sepharose 4B, it was found that both the native glycoprotein and its S-carboxymethylated derivative had subunit molecular weights of 46000 (+/-5000). In a non-denaturing solution, two of these units appear to be associated. 4. The lectin is specifically inhibited in its agglutination reaction by oligosaccharides that contain N-acetylglucosamine. Its specificity is similar to, but not identical with, that of wheat-germ agglutinin.