Characterisation of TcFUT1, a mitochondrial fucosyltransferase from Trypanosoma cruzi.

Previous work has shown that the TbFUT1 and LmjFUT1 genes encode essential fucosyltransferases located inside the single mitochondria of the protozoan parasites Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania major, respectively. However, nothing was known about the orthologous gene TcFUT1 or its gene product in Trypanosoma cruzi, aetiological agent of Chagas disease. In this study, we describe the overexpression of TcFUT1 with a C-terminal 6xMyc epitope tag in T.

An essential, kinetoplastid-specific GDP-Fuc: β-D-Gal α-1,2-fucosyltransferase is located in the mitochondrion of .

Fucose is a common component of eukaryotic cell-surface glycoconjugates, generally added by Golgi-resident fucosyltransferases. Whereas fucosylated glycoconjugates are rare in kinetoplastids, the biosynthesis of the nucleotide sugar GDP-Fuc has been shown to be essential in . Here we show that the single identifiable fucosyltransferase (TbFUT1) is a GDP-Fuc: β-D-galactose α-1,2-fucosyltransferase with an apparent preference for a Galβ1,3GlcNAcβ1-O-R acceptor motif.