Fucokinase (FUK)

Fucokinase belongs to the GHMP (galacto-, homoserine, mevalonate and phosphomevalonate) kinase family and catalyzes the phosphorylation of L-fucose to form beta-L-fucose 1-phosphate. This enzyme catalyzes the first step in the utilization of free L-fucose in glycoprotein and glycolipid synthesis. L-fucose may be important in mediating a number of cell-cell interactions such as blood group antigen recognition, inflammation, and metastatis. While several transcript variants may exist for this gene, the full-length nature of only one has been described to date.The deduced 990-amino acid FUK protein has a predicted molecular mass of 107 kD. It contains 5 C-terminal motifs characteristic of the ATP-binding sites of hexokinases, as well as 31 potential phosphorylation sites evenly distributed throughout its sequence.