Table 1.

Classification of animal lectins and their ligands (Wiederschain 2009)

Lectin family	Site of occurrence	Cellular location	Ligand	Nature of the ligand
C-Lectin -Asialoglycoprotein receptor -Macrophage mannose receptor -Natural killer cell receptor -Kupffer cell receptor -Selectins -Collectins	Hepatocytes, macrophages, testis Macrophages NK cell, T-cell Hepatic macrophages Leukocytes, Platelets, Endothelial cells plasma, liver	cellular membrane, extracellular	Gal, GalNac mannose heparin, fucose glycan GalNAc, β-Fuc glycans fucose, sialic acid, sulfated glycans Man, Fuc, GlcNAc	Monosaccharide and its amino sugar derivative Monosaccharide Mucopolysaccharide deoxy sugar Amino sugar derivative Terminal glucose residues of cell surface glycoproteins and glycolipids Monosaccharide & derivatives
S-Lectin/Galectin	Epithelial cells, macrophages	Cytoplasm, extracellular	β-galactosidase	Glycoside hydrolase enzyme
M -Lectin	Plasma, macrophages	Endoplasmic Reticulum	Mannose	Monosaccharide
P-Lectin	Endothelial cells	Secretory pathway	M6P	N-linked oligosaccharide
L-Lectin	Macrophages, epithelial cells	ER. GOLGI, ERGIC	diverse glycans	Mono, oligo saccharides
I-Lectin	T cell, macrophages, myeloid cells	cell membrane	Sialic acid	Terminal glucose residues of cell surface glycoproteins and glycolipids
R-Lectin	Chondrocytes, endothelial cells	cell membrane, Golgi apparatus	diverse glycans	Mono, oligo saccharides
Other class of lectins Calnexin F-box lectin Intelectin F-Lectin Chitinase-like lectin	Fibroblast, splenocytes Brain cells Heart, colon, renal collecting tubule cells Sperm cells Cartilage tissues	ER Cytoplasm extracellular membrane extracellular extracellular	Glc Man9 Glc Nac2 Gal, Galactofuranose, pentoses fucose ending glycans Chito-oligosaccharides	Glycan derivatives β-(1 → 4)-linked d-glucosamine