Oligoarabinosides of hydroxyproline isolated from potato lectin

The lectin from potato tubers is a glycoprotein containing 50% sugars and rich in hydroxyproline and arabinose moieties. The nature of the protein-sugar linkage has been compared to that of insoluble potato cell wall protein and the arabinose was shown to exist as short oligosaccharides of 3 or 4 residues attached to hydroxyproline. In the lectin there were no large oligosaccharides attached to hydroxyproline. Lectin activity with the same specificity as that of the tuber lectin was shown to be associated with particulate membrane fractions prepared from cultured potato roots.