Glycobiology Advance Access published online on June 16, 2006
Glycobiology, doi:10.1093/glycob/cwl012
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1 Bioinformatics centre and Supercomputer Education and Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India 560 012
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Lectins, a class of carbohydrate binding proteins are now widely recognized to play a range of crucial roles in many cell-cell recognition events triggering several important cellular processes. They encompass different members that are diverse in their sequences, structures, binding site architectures, quaternary structures, carbohydrate affinities and specificities as well as their larger biological roles and potential applications. It is not surprising therefore that the vast amount of experimental data on lectins available in the literature is so diverse, that it becomes difficult and time-consuming, if not impossible to comprehend the advances in various areas and obtain the maximum benefit. In order to achieve an effective use of all the data towards understanding the function and their possible applications, an organization of these seemingly independent data into a common framework is essential. An integrated knowledge base (Lectindb) together with appropriate analytical tools has therefore been developed initially for plant lectins by collating and integrating diverse data. The database has been implemented using MySQL on a Linux platform and web-enabled using Perl-CGI and Java tools. Data for each lectin pertains to taxonomic, biochemical, domain architecture, molecular sequence and structural details as well as carbohydrate and hence blood group specificities. Extensive links have also been provided for relevant bioinformatics resources and analytical tools. Availability of diverse data integrated into a common framework is expected to be of high value not only for basic studies in lectin biology but also in pursuing several applications in biotechnology, immunology and clinical practice, using these molecules.
Received February 11, 2006
Revised May 17, 2006
Accepted June 6, 2006
Article
Lectindb: A Plant Lectin database
Nagasuma R Chandra 1 *,
Nirmal Kumar 1,
Justin Jeyakani 1,
Desh Deepak Singh 1,
Sharan B Gowda 1,
and
MN Prathima 1
Nagasuma R Chandra, E-mail: nchandra{at}physics.iisc.ernet.in
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