L-Fucose is a sugar present in human secretions as part of human milk oligosaccharides, mucins, and other glycoconjugates in the intestinal epithelium. The genome of the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) carries a gene cluster encoding a putative L-fucose permease (fucP), L-fucose catabolic pathway (fucI, fucK, fucU, and fucA), and a transcriptional regulator (fucR). The metabolism of L-fucose in LGG results in 1,2-propanediol production, and their fucI and fucP mutants displayed a severe and mild growth defect on L-fucose, respectively. Transcriptional analysis revealed that the fuc genes are induced by L-fucose and subject to a strong carbon catabolite repression effect. This induction was triggered by FucR, which acted as a transcriptional activator necessary for growth on L-fucose. LGG utilized fucosyl-␣1,3-N-acetylglucosamine and contrarily to other lactobacilli, the presence of fuc genes allowed this strain to use the L-fucose moiety. In fucI and fucR mutants, but not in fucP mutant, L-fucose was not metabolized and it was excreted to the medium during growth on fucosyl-␣1,3-N-acetylglucosamine. The fuc genes were induced by this fucosyl-disaccharide in the wild type and the fucP mutant but not in a fucI mutant, showing that FucP does not participate in the regulation of fuc genes and that L-fucose metabolism is needed for FucR activation. The L-fucose operon characterized here constitutes a new example of the many factors found in LGG that allow this strain to adapt to the gastrointestinal conditions. O ne of the few hexoses with "L" configuration found in nature is L-fucose (6-deoxy-L-galactose). It forms part of many glycans present at the surface of eukaryotic cells such as H and Lewis antigens, which are present not only in blood cells but also in epithelial cells at different mucosal sites (1). It is also present at the highly glycosylated mucin proteins of the intestinal mucosa and in a high proportion of the oligosaccharides present in human milk (2, 3). These facts make L-fucose an important sugar in the microbial ecology of the gastrointestinal tract. The importance of the fucosylation of mucosal glycoconjugates on the intestinal ecology is reflected by the fact that the intestinal microbiota composition is dependent on the secretor status of the individuals, which is defined by mutations in the FUT2 gene coding for an ␣(1,2)-fucosyltransferase that participates in the fucosylation of mucosal glycans (4, 5). Owing to its elevated concentration found in the intestinal niche, L-fucose can be used as a carbon source and its utilization has been identified as a key factor for intestinal colonization in some bacteria. Thus, the pathogen Campylobacter jejuni, primarily thought to be an asaccharolytic microorganism, was able to use L-fucose, and this provides it with a competitive advantage, as determined in a neonatal piglet infection model (6). Also, a ⌬fucAO mutant of the probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 strain, unable to use L-fucose, showed 2 orders of magnitude lower colonization le...