Phytohaemagglutinins in Membrane Signalling, Biomedical and Genetic Engineering Research

Plant lectins have long been used as powerful and specific tools in carbohydrate chemistry and histology. Lectins are now also recognized in their own right as a class of communication proteins which are involved in interactions between plants and their environment and may also have physiological functions within the plant. Using molecular modelling techniques, new opportunities have arisen to explore similarities, make predictions and establish correlations in sugar-binding activity and/or specificity between well-studied and newly discovered lectins. This paper attempts to review the major plant lectin family, their physiology, carbohydrate binding specificity, their role in biomedical and genetic engineering of crop plants, towards pests and disease resistance.