2. Academic Validation
  3. Pathogenic Variants in Fucokinase Cause a Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation

Pathogenic Variants in Fucokinase Cause a Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation

  • Am J Hum Genet. 2018 Dec 6;103(6):1030-1037. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.10.021.
Bobby G Ng 1,  Jill A Rosenfeld 2,  Lisa Emrick 3,  Mahim Jain 4,  Lindsay C Burrage 2,  Brendan Lee 2,  Undiagnosed Diseases Network,  William J Craigen 2,  David R Bearden 5,  Brett H Graham 6,  Hudson H Freeze 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Human Genetics Program, Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
  • 2 Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
  • 3 Neurology Section, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
  • 4 Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
  • 5 Department of Neurology, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, NY 14623, USA.
  • 6 Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA.
  • 7 Human Genetics Program, Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Electronic address: hudson@sbpdiscovery.org.
PMID: 30503518 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.10.021
Abstract

FUK encodes fucokinase, the only Enzyme capable of converting L-fucose to fucose-1-phosphate, which will ultimately be used for synthesizing GDP-fucose, the donor substrate for all fucosyltransferases. Although it is essential for fucose salvage, this pathway is thought to make only a minor contribution to the total amount of GDP-fucose. A second pathway, the major de novo pathway, involves conversion of GDP-mannose to GDP-fucose. Here we describe two unrelated individuals who have pathogenic variants in FUK and who presented with severe developmental delays, encephalopathy, intractable seizures, and hypotonia. The first individual was compound heterozygous for c.667T>C (p.Ser223Pro) and c.2047C>T (p.Arg683Cys), and the second individual was homozygous for c.2980A>C (p.Lys994Gln). Skin fibroblasts from the first individual confirmed the variants as loss of function and showed significant decreases in total GDP-[3H] fucose and [3H] fucose-1-phosphate. There was also a decrease in the incorporation of [5,6-3H]-fucose into fucosylated glycoproteins. Lys994 has previously been shown to be an important site for ubiquitin conjugation. Here, we show that loss-of-function variants in FUK cause a congenital glycosylation disorder characterized by a defective fucose-salvage pathway.

Keywords

congenital disorder of glycosylation; encephalopathy; fucosylation; glycan, fucose; intellectual disability; salvage.

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