A -fucosyltransferase

Neoglycoproteins can serve as substrates for glycosyl-transferases in the chemo-enzymatic preparation of more complex glycan structures. In addition, neoglycoproteins are useful as substrates in the assay for glycosyltrans-ferases. Examples are fS-l,4-galactosyltransferases (71, 72) and a-fucosyltransferase (73). 

Finne, J., Burger, M. M. and Prieels, J. P. (1982). Enzymatic basis for a lectin-resistant phenotype increase in a fucosyltransferase in mouse melanoma cells. J. Cell Biol. 92, 277-282. 

During a study of the substrate specificity of a fucosyltransferase, octyl 3-, 4-, and 6-deoxyfluoro-P-D-galactopyranosides were prepared, while methyl 2-O-a-L-rhamnopyranosyl-a-D-galactopyranoside derivatives selectively fluorinated at the 3-, 4-, or 6- positions of the galactose moiety have been prepared as analogues of the antigenic determinant of the polysaccharide of Shigella dysenteriae ... 

An L-fucosyltransferase (GDP-L-fucose L-fucose a-fucosyltransferase) that catalyses the transfer of L-fucose from GDP-L-fucose to either L-fucose or fucoidin has been found in the Golgi apparatus of Fucus serratus ... 

Fleet and co-worker described the synthesis of L-C-fucoside analogue 68, locked in a 4 chair conformation, as potent inhibitor of fucosidases and weak inhibitor of a fucosyltransferase (Fig. 20). This a-L-fucose... 

As mentioned earlier, milk from Le(a-t-) or Le(b-f) donors contains a fucosyltransferase which converts lacto-N-fucopentaose I to lacto-N-di-fucohexaose I by incorporating fucose in al,4 hnkage to N-acetylglucosamine (Grollman et al., 1969) Le(a—b— ) individuals lack this enzyme. Further evidence for the function of the Le gene is the observation that milk from Le(a—b) donors lacks two of the milk oligosaccharides... 

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of a common structural organization of a fucosyltransferase. The domains are not to scale. The carboxy terminus is depicted to represent the possible interaction of this region with the acceptor binding and catalytic domains. Scissors indicate the site of an in vivo proteolytic clevage that results in release of soluble fucosyltransferases.

The biological functions of the complex carbohydrates of parasites are not clearly understood. The molecular cloning and characterization of a fucosyltransferase of Schistosoma mansioni [49] with a DNA sequence similarity of 85% and 64% to mouse and human fucosyltransferase type VII have been reported [49], The parasite al,3FucT is capable of synthesizing the SALe determinant, but not the Le in CHO cells. 

Marques, ET, Jr, Weiss, JB and Strand, M (1998) Molecular characterization of a fucosyltransferase encoded by Schistosoma mansoni. Mol Biochem Parasitol 93 237-50. 

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