A fucosyltransferase is an enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

 that transfers an L-fucose

Fucose

Fucose is a hexose deoxy sugar with the chemical formula C6H12O5. It is found on N-linked glycans on the mammalian, insect and plant cell surface, and is the fundamental sub-unit of the fucoidan polysaccharide...

 sugar from a GDP-fucose (guanosine diphosphate

Guanosine diphosphate

Guanosine diphosphate, abbreviated GDP, is a nucleoside diphosphate. It is an ester of pyrophosphoric acid with the nucleoside guanosine. GDP consists of the pyrophosphate group, the pentose sugar ribose, and the nucleobase guanine....

-fucose) donor substrate to an acceptor substrate. The acceptor substrate can be another sugar such as the transfer of a fucose to a core GlcNAc (N-acetylglucosamine

N-Acetylglucosamine

N-Acetylglucosamine is a monosaccharide derivative of glucose. It is an amide between glucosamine and acetic acid...

) sugar as in the case of N-linked glycosylation, or to a protein, as in the case of O-linked glycosylation produced by O-fucosyltransferase

GDP-fucose Protein O-fucosyltransferase 1

GDP-fucose protein O-fucosyltransferase 1 is an enzyme responsible for adding fucose sugars in O linkage to serine or threonine residues between the second and third conserved cysteines in EGF-like repeats on the Notch protein...

. There are various fucosyltransferases in mammals, the vast majority of which, are located in the Golgi apparatus

Golgi apparatus

The Golgi apparatus is an organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. It was identified in 1898 by the Italian physician Camillo Golgi, after whom the Golgi apparatus is named....

. The O-fucosyltransferases have recently been shown to localize to the endoplasmic reticulum

Endoplasmic reticulum

The endoplasmic reticulum is an organelle of cells in eukaryotic organisms that forms an interconnected network of tubules, vesicles, and cisternae...

 (ER).

Some of the proteins in this group are responsible for the molecular basis of the blood group antigens, surface markers on the outside of the red blood cell membrane. Most of these markers are proteins, but some are carbohydrates attached to lipids or proteins [Reid M.E., Lomas-Francis C. The Blood Group Antigen FactsBook Academic Press, London / San Diego, (1997)]. Galactoside 3(4)-L-fucosyltransferase belongs to the Lewis blood group system and is associated with Le(a/b) antigen.

Classification

Glycosyltransferase family 10 CAZY GT_10 comprises enzymes with two known activities; galactoside 3(4)-L-fucosyltransferase and galactoside 3-fucosyltransferase . The galactoside 3-fucosyltransferases display similarities with the alpha-2 and alpha-6-fucosyltranferases. The biosynthesis of the carbohydrate antigen sialyl Lewis X (sLe(x)) is dependent on the activity of an galactoside 3-fucosyltransferase. This enzyme catalyses the transfer of fucose from GDP-beta-fucose to the 3-OH of N-acetylglucosamine present in lactosamine acceptors.

Human proteins containing this domain

FT1A; FUT10; FUT11; FUT3; FUT4

FUT4

Fucosyltransferase 4 also known as FUT4 is an enzyme which in humans is encoded by the FUT4 gene.- Function :...

; FUT5

FUT5

Alpha--fucosyltransferase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FUT5 gene.-Further reading:...

; FUT6

FUT6

Alpha--fucosyltransferase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FUT6 gene.-Further reading:...

; FUT7

FUT7

Alpha--fucosyltransferase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FUT7 gene.-Further reading:...

;
FUT9

FUT9

Alpha--fucosyltransferase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FUT9 gene.-Further reading:...

;