Ficus cunia agglutinin for recognition of bacteria.

Interaction of bacteria with lectin using anti-lectin antibody by ELISA is an established method. In the present study, we have devised a simple ELISA using a biotinylated lectin and antibiotin-HRP. Ficus cunia agglutinin (FCA), which has shown the specificity towards alpha/beta anomers of GlcNAc and other-NAc containing sugars like LacNAc and GlcNAcbeta(1-4/6)GlcNAc, was used as a model lectin for the study of interaction with immobilized microorganisms on ELISA plate. The bacterial cells of E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus showed binding with FCA and the degree of binding was dependent on the bacterial surface antigen. This method is considered a simple technique to study the lectin-bacteria interaction.