Fucosyltransferase 5. GDP-fucose lactosamine α3/4-fucosyltransferase(FUT5)

Abstract

In 1992, Weston et al. isolated a human α1,3-fucosyltransferase gene homologous to, but distinct from, hitherto reported genes for two fucosyltransferases, Fuc-T III, and Fuc-T IV and named it Fuc-T V. Fuc-T V shared 91 % amino acid sequence identity with Fuc-T III, and the FUT5 gene encoding the enzyme was located on chromosome 19 similar to that for Fuc-T III. Fuc-T V is able to utilize both type 1 and type 2 chain poly-N-acetyllactosamines as substrate and has activity as α1,3/4 fucosyltransferase. Since recombinant enzyme protein was made available at an early stage of study, the enzymatic characteristics of the recombinant enzyme have been extensively studied, while the gene was found to be only sparsely expressed in cells and tissues, and its physiological function remained largely unknown until recently.