Every eukaryotic cell is covered with a thick layer of complex carbohydrates with essential roles in their social life. In Deuterostoma, sialic acids present at the outermost positions of glycans of glycoconjugates are known to be key players in cellular interactions including host-pathogen interactions. Their negative charge and hydrophilic properties enable their roles in various normal and pathological states and their expression is altered in many diseases including cancers. Sialylation of glycoproteins and glycolipids is orchestrated by the regulated expression of twenty sialyltransferases in human tissues with distinct enzymatic characteristics and preferences for substrates and linkages formed. However, still very little is known on the functional organization of sialyltransferases in the Golgi apparatus and how the sialylation machinery is finely regulated to provide the ad hoc sialome to the cell. This review summarizes current knowledge on sialyltransferases, their structure–function relationships, molecular evolution, and their implications in human biology.

每个真核细胞都覆盖着一层厚厚的复杂碳水化合物，在其社会生活中发挥着重要作用。在后口属中，存在于糖缀合物聚糖最外层位置的唾液酸已知是细胞相互作用（包括宿主-病原体相互作用）中的关键参与者。它们的负电荷和亲水特性使其能够在各种正常和病理状态下发挥作用，并且它们的表达在包括癌症在内的许多疾病中发生改变。糖蛋白和糖脂的唾液酸化是通过人体组织中二十种唾液酸转移酶的调节表达来协调的，这些唾液酸转移酶具有独特的酶学特征以及对底物和形成的连接的偏好。然而，对于高尔基体中唾液酸转移酶的功能组织以及如何精细调节唾液酸化机制以向细胞提供特设唾液酸组，人们仍然知之甚少。这篇综述总结了唾液酸转移酶的最新知识、它们的结构-功能关系、分子进化及其对人类生物学的影响。