Fucosylation and gastrointestinal cancer

Figure 1 Fucose metabolism. GDP-fucose is mainly synthesized through the de novo pathway by three reactions catalyzed by GDP-4,6-dehydratase (GMDS) and GDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-mannose-3,5, epimerase-4-reductase (FX). Free L-fucose is converted to GDP-fucose through the salvage pathway, which is a minor pathway. GDP-fucose is subsequently transported from the cytosol to the Golgi lumen by GDP-fucose transporter, and then transferred to acceptor oligosaccharides and proteins by fucosyltransferases.