ABSTRACT: Salivary gland homogenate (SGH) from the female mosquitoes Anopheles gambiae, An. stephensi, An. freeborni, An. dirus and An. albimanus were found to exhibit hemagglutinating (lectin) activity. Lectin activity was not found for male An. gambiae, or female Ae aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus, Phlebotomus duboscqi, and Lutzomyia longipalpis. With respect to species-specificity, An. gambiae SGH agglutinates red blood cells (RBC) from humans, horse, sheep, goat, pig, and cow; it is less active for rats RBC, and not detectable for guinea-pigs or chicken RBC. Notably, lectin activity was inhibited by low concentrations of dextran sulfate 50-500 K, fucoidan, heparin, laminin, heparin sulfate proteoglycan, sialyl-containing glycans (e.g. 3'-sialyl Lewis X, and 6'-sialyl lactose), and gangliosides (
