Unusual entropy-driven affinity of Chromobacterium violaceum lectin CV-IIL toward fucose and mannose

The cloning of CV-IIL and its expression as a recombinant protein is described and a complete structure-function characterization is made to analyze the specificity and affinity of CV-IIL for fucose and mannose. Crystal structures of CV-IIL complexes with monosaccharids have yielded the molecular basis of the specificity and each monomer contains two close calcium cations that mediate the binding of the monosaccharides, which occurs in different orientations for fucose and mannose.