Recently, it has been found that plants, including tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), express the Lewis-a epitope, Galβ1,3(Fucα1,4)GlcNAc, on some N-glycans. By searching the EST database, it was possible to identify a tomato cDNA encoding a protein, designated FucTC, of 413 amino acids with homology to plant and mammalian α1,3/4-fucosyltransferases. The cDNA was expressed in Pichia pastoris and the recombinant enzyme was found to transfer fucose from GDP-Fuc (Km 16 μM) to lacto-N-tetraose (Galβ1,3GlcNAcβ1,3Galβ1,4Glc; Km 80 μM) as well as to β1,3- and β1,4-galactosylated N-glycans. It is concluded that FucTC is responsible for the biosynthesis of Lewis-a on N-glycans in tomato.