Isolamento e caracterização de uma nova lectina da casca de Schinus terebinthifolius (aroeira-da-praia)

Abstract

Lectins are proteins or glycoproteins that recognize free or conjugated carbohydrates, reversibly binding to them. Lectins participate in several events of the immune system of plants and animals and assisting in the process of cell adhesion and recognition. Schinus terebinthifolius belongs to the family Anacardiaceae, which is resistant to various types of insect injury. This work aimed at the isolation and characterization of a new lectin from the shell of S. terebinthifolius (SteBL). The bark extract (20%, w/v) was prepared in 0.15 M NaCl solution for 16 h at 4°C. The extract was treated with ammonium sulfate in different concentrations (0-20%, 20-40%, 40-60% and 60-80%). The hemagglutinating activity (HA) of the fractions were evaluated with rabbit erythrocyte suspension 2.5% (m/v). Subsequently, the supernatant fraction – FS 40%, which presented the highest specific activity, was subjected to chitin matrix affinity chromatography, where about 125 μg of protein was applied on a chitin column equilibrated with 0.15 M NaCl. showed HA were eluted with 1.0 M acetic acid. The chromatographic profile of the chitin column showed an active protein peak (SHA: 65536) after elution with 1.0 M acetic acid (0.0625 mg protein). Then the partially isolated SteBL was characterized as the effect of temperature (30-100 ° C), pH (3-10), divalent cations (Ca2+, Mn2+ and Zn2+) on. The same preparation was also evaluated on polyacrylamide gel (10% w/v) under denaturing conditions in the presence and absence of 2-Mercaptoethanol. N-acetylglucosamine and lactose carbohydrates showed inhibition, expressing a reduction of about 75% and 99%. , SteBL HA was partially isolated and showed a thermal stability over a wide temperature range with a maximum activity at 50 ° C (SHA: 131.072) and pH 5 (SHA: 131.072) and ionindependent. In order to completely isolate SteBL, a new extract from the bark of the mastic was prepared in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer pH 8.0 (20%, w/v), where it was filtered on activated charcoal and subjected to chitin matrix affinity chromatography followed by anion exchange chromatography (DEAE-Sepharose), where it was possible to isolate a peptide of about 24 kDa.