Lectinweg

LectinWeg is a collaborative research initiative and online database focused on lectins, a diverse group of carbohydrate-binding proteins found in plants, animals, and microbes. The project gathers and organizes data on lectin sequences and structures, carbohydrate specificities, binding assay results, and physiological contexts to support research in glycoscience, immunology, and nutrition.

Originating as a joint project of several universities and research institutes, LectinWeg operates as an open-access resource with community contributions and curator-reviewed entries. It maintains a governance framework that includes data provenance, versioning, and quality controls to ensure traceability of sources and experimental conditions.

Content and features include indexed entries for individual lectins, links to source organisms, and mappings to known glycan ligands. The platform offers search by lectin name, sequence motifs, or glycan structure, and provides visualizations of interaction networks and binding data. Data standards are aligned with established ontologies and widely used glycomics vocabularies to enable interoperability with other resources.

Impact and reception: LectinWeg is used by researchers across biochemistry, plant science, and nutrition to explore lectin functions, cross-species variation, and potential biological roles in health and disease. It is cited in review articles and serves as a teaching tool in university courses. Limitations include variable reporting quality in primary literature and ongoing needs for standardized annotation of experimental methods.

Future directions include expanding coverage, integrating high-throughput binding data, and improving interoperability with clinical databases.