Heterologous expression of the lectin CmRlec from Cordyceps militaris (Cordycipitaceae, Ascomycota) in Escherichia coli.

Ascomycete lectins may play an important role in their life cycle. In this report, we mined a ricin B-type lectin, named CmRlec, from the Cordyceps militaris genome by homology search. Furthermore, we succeeded in the soluble expression of CmRlec using β-glucuronidase as a solubilization tag and demonstrated that this lectin is a novel chitin-recognizing lectin.