Fucose in N-glycans: from plant to man

Fucosylated oligosaccharides occur throughout nature and many of them play a variety of roles in biology, especially in a number of recognition proces ses. As reviewed here, much of the recent emphasis in the study of the olig osaccharides in mammals has been on their potential medical importance, par ticularly in inflammation and cancer. Indeed, changes in fucosylation patte rns due to different levels of expression of various fucosyltransferases ca n be used for diagnoses of some diseases and monitoring the success of ther apies. In contrast, there are generally at present only limited data on fuc osylation in non-mammalian organisms. Here, the state of current knowledge on the fucosylation abilities of plants, insects, snails, lower eukaryotes and prokaryotes will be summarised. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.