Α-L-fucosidase

The enzyme α- L -fucosidase catalyzes the following chemical reaction: an α- L -fucoside + H2O $$\rightleftharpoons$$ L -fucose + an alcohol

This enzyme belongs to the family of hydrolases, specifically those glycosidases that hydrolyse O- and S-glycosyl compounds. The systematic name of this enzyme class is α- L -fucoside fucohydrolase. This enzyme is also called α-fucosidase. It participates in N-glycan degradation and glycan structure degradation.

Deficiency of this enzyme is called fucosidosis.

In CAZy, α- L -fucosidases are found in glycoside hydrolase family 29 and glycoside hydrolase family 95.

Structural studies
As of late 2007, 3 structures have been solved for this class of enzymes, with PDB accession codes, , and.

Human medical studies
It was in a recent study by Endreffy, Bjørklund and collaborators (2017) found an association between the activity of α- L -fucosidase-1 (FUCA-1) and chronic autoimmune disorders in children. This should encourage further research on FUCA-1 as a marker of chronic inflammation and autoimmunity.