Isolation of fucosyltransferase-producing bacteria from marine environments

Fucose-containing oligosaccharides on the cell surface of some pathogenic bacteria are thought to be important for host-microbe interactions and to play a major role in the pathogenicity of bacterial pathogens. Here, we screened marine bacteria for glycosyltransferases using two methods: a one-pot glycosyltransferase assay method and a lectin-staining method. Using this approach, we isolated marine bacteria with fucosyltransferase activity. There have been no previous reports of marine bacteria producing fucosyltransferase. This paper thus represents the first report of fucosyltransferase-producing marine bacteria.