L-Fucose is a 6-carbon deoxyhexose and exists in nature in various biological niches. A major natural source of L-fucose is the brown algal polysaccharide fucoidan.
L-Fucose is a minor component in plant cell wall polysaccharides, specifically rhamnogalacturonan, xyloglucan and also arabinogalactan proteins that are involved in plant cell elongation.
In glycoproteins L-fucose is a key component of the oligosaccharide moiety and is attached via α-1,(2, 3, 4 or 6) linkages. The variation of the oligosaccharide structure is known to dictate biological function of glycoproteins and, as such, L-fucose has been indicated as a potential biological marker for various disease states such as breast cancer. L-fucose is a common component of human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) such as 2’-fucosyl-lactose. In addition to the role as a prebiotic, HMOs are known to impart immunological functions to breast-fed infants such as preventing microbial adhesion to the intestinal mucosal membrane.
This kit (K-FUCOSE) provides a rapid and reliable method, suitable for the measurement of L-fucose in plant extracts, biological samples and other materials. It can also be used in the measurement of α-Lfucosidases that do not act on chromogenic substrates.