Chemical modification of the lectin of the marine coral Gerardia savaglia by marine quinone avarone

The quinone avarone, isolated from the marine sponge Dysidea avara, possesses the ability to chemically modify proteins. In this work, modification of lectin isolated from the coral Gerardia savaglia by avarone was examined. The te- chniques used for studying the modification were: SDS PAGE, isoelectric focusing and hemagglutination testing. The results of the SDS PAGE indicate dimerization of the protein. A shift of the pI toward lower value occurs upon modification. The change of the hemagglutination activity of the protein confirms that chemical modi- fication of G. savaglia lectin by avarone changes its ability to interact with the membrane of erythrocytes.