A fucosyltransferase is an enzyme that transfers an L-fucose sugar from a GDP-fucose (Guanosine diphosphate-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) 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. There are various fucosyltransferases in mammals, the vast majority of which, are located in the Golgi apparatus. The O-fucosyltransferases have recently been shown to localize to the ER.
Fucosyltransferase activity may be a risk factor for urinary tract infection.
