Molecular cloning and characterization of the Caenorhabditis elegans α1-3-fucosyltransferase family. Glycobiology 2007

The genome of Caenorhabditis elegans encodes five genes with homology to known a1,3 fucosyltransferases (a1,3FTs), but their expression and functions are poorly understood. Here we report the molecular cloning and characterization of these C. elegans a1,3FTs (CEFT-1 through-5). The open-reading frame for each enzyme pre-dicts a type II transmembrane protein and multiple poten-tial N-glycosylation sites. We prepared recombinant epitope-tagged forms of each CEFT and found that they had unusual acceptor specificity, cation requirements, and temperature sensitivity. CEFT-1 acted on the N-glycan pentasaccharide core acceptor to generate Mana1-3(Mana1-6)Manb1-4GlcNAcb1-4(Fuca1-3)GlcNAcb1-Asn. In contrast, CEFT-2 did not act on the pentasaccharide acceptor, but instead utilized a LacdiNAc acceptor t