Introduction The goal of this experiment was to determine the function and presence of Concanavalin A from a series of different sources. These sources included epithelial cells from the inside of the cheek as well as a collection of red blood cells. In regards to the cheek cells, the presence of the Con A receptor was seen by binding this substance with horseradish peroxidase in order to produce a visible color. In regards to the collection of red blood cells, a small portion of blood was collected, and each portion was mixed with a variety of substances to study the agglutination of the cells. Special detail was directed upon the number of erythrocytes that were bound with other cells by observing the samples under a microscope. Procedure …show more content…
Slide B: This was mixed with 15 microliters of erythrocyte suspension, 10 microliters of Con A Buffer, and 10 microliters of Con A. Slide C: This was mixed with 15 microliters of erythrocyte suspension, 10 microliters of Con A, and 10 microliters of Galactose. Slide D: This was mixed with 15 microliters of erythrocyte suspension, 10 microliters of Con A, and 10 microliters of Mannose. Discussion The results for cell staining on slides 3 and 4 showed a noticeable purple staining for both samples. Slide 3 (Galactose) showed that the cheek cells were tightly bound together with a purple color while slide 4 (Mannose) showed the cheek cells gathered together with a purple color as well. With that being said, these findings were able to meet the criteria of Concanavalin A. It was easy to identify that binding occurred in both experiments because the purple color was visible in both samples. Furthermore, reports indicate that lectin sugars show a high percentage of binding cells in plants and …show more content…
Therefore, lectin is able to form a bridge with receptors to cause the cells to clump together. The expected results for the controls were composed of no binding because there was not any source of sugar in the sample. For the sugar tests, binding of the red blood cells were the expected results. In regards to the control samples, Slide A met the expectations; however, Slide B showed a strong percentage of binding with Con A. Furthermore, only one of the sugar samples met the expectations for the experiment; galactose showed binding while mannose did