The lectin has two different types of carbohydrate -combining sites: one type for oligomannoses, which preferentially binds to a cluster of nonreducing terminal alpha1,3-linked mannosyl residues, and the other type for complex N-linked carbohydrate s, which best accommodates a non-sialylated, triantennary oligosaccharide with N-acetyllactosamine (i.e. Galbeta1,4GlcNAc-) or lacto-N-biose (i.e. Galbeta1,3GlcNAc-) groups at its three nonreducing termini.
