A new superfamily of protein-O-fucosyltransferases, 2-fucosyltransferases, and 6-fucosyltransferases: phylogeny and identification of conserved peptide motifs

Abstract

The presence of three conserved peptide motifs shared by α2-fucosyltransferases, α6-fucosyltransferases, the protein-O-fucosyltransferase family 1 (POFUT1) and a newly identified protein-O-fucosyltransferase family 2 (POFUT2), together with evidence that the present genes encoding for these enzymes have originated from a common ancestor by duplication and divergent evolution, suggests that they constitute a new superfamily of fucosyltransferases.