Crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic studies of a lectin from the mushroom Marasmius oreades

The Marasmius oreades agglutinin (MOA) recognizes blood group B oligosaccharides. This mushroom lectin belongs to the ricin superfamily and is currently the only lectin known with exclusive specificity for Galα1,3Gal-structures, as occur in the subterminally fucosylated blood group B epitope Galα1,3(Fucα1,2)Galβ1,4GlcNAc (MOA\u27s preferred ligand) or without fucosylation in the xenotransplantation epitope. MOA has been co-crystallized with the linear blood group B trisaccharide Galα1,3Galβ1,4GlcNAc using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion technique at room temperature. MOA crystals were grown in the presence of ammonium formate and HEPES buffer. A 3.0 \uc5 data set has been collected. Preliminary analysis of the X-ray data is consistent with space group P3 1 or P3 2 and unit-cell parameters a = b = 105, c = 113 \uc5, with two dimers per asymmetric unit. \ua9 2004 International Union of Crystallography