Wheat Germ Agglutinin, IO, 1000ug

Supplied as a 1000 µg (1 mg) lyophilized vial, this Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA) reagent from STEMCELL Technologies is a lectin preparation purified from Triticum vulgaris (common wheat). WGA binds selectively to N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) oligomers and sialic acid residues on cell surface glycoproteins and glycolipids, making it a widely deployed probe for membrane visualization in fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, and confocal imaging workflows.

Lyophilized powder should be stored refrigerated and protected from light; reconstitute in sterile buffer immediately before use and aliquot reconstituted stocks to limit freeze-thaw cycles, preserving lectin binding activity across the reagent's shelf life.

Typical laboratory applications include plasma membrane counterstaining alongside nuclear dyes such as DAPI or Hoechst, neuronal tract tracing when coupled to fluorophore reporters, glycobiology investigations profiling cell surface carbohydrate expression, and live-cell labeling in in vitro cell culture. Working concentrations generally fall in the 1 to 10 µg/mL range depending on cell type and detection modality, and the IO (iodoacetamide) labeling chemistry supports covalent coupling to sulfhydryl-containing proteins or reporters for downstream affinity capture or microscopy.