Lectin for most people. A strict lectin-free diet is unbalanced and dangerously low in many nutrients, requiring significant dietary supplementation to maintain health. Lectins are one of many toxic constituents of many raw plants, which are inactivated by proper processing and preparation (e.g., cooking with heat, fermentation). For example, raw kidney beans naturally contain toxic levels of lectin (e.g. phytohaemagglutinin). Adverse effects may include nutritional deficiencies, and immune (allergic) reactions. Lectins are considered a major family of protein antinutrients (ANCs), which are specific sugar-binding proteins exhibiting reversible carbohydrate-binding activities. Lectins are similar to antibodies in their ability to agglutinate red blood
Keratin used as fluorescent markers to distinguish subsets of TECs in genetic studies of the thymus. Additionally, the baleen plates of filter-feeding whales are made of keratin. Keratins (also described as cytokeratins) are polymers of type I and type II intermediate filaments, which have only been found in the genomes of chordates (vertebrates, Amphioxus, urochordates). Nematodes and many other non-chordate animals seem to only have type VI intermediate filaments, lamins, which have a long rod domain (vs. a short rod domain for the keratins). The human genome encodes 54 functional keratin genes which are located in two clusters on chromosomes 12