Sialylation (Homo sapiens)

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This pathway describes the biosynthesis, activation and transfer of the sialic acid Neu5Ac to glycoproteins. Sialic acids are acidic sugar molecules that commonly occur as the terminal sugar as part of glycoproteins and glycolipids on the surface of cells. Sialylated conjugates play important roles in many processes, including cell recognition and signaling, neuronal development, cancer metastasis and bacterial or viral infection. The two most commonly mammalian sialic acids are N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) and N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc).

This pathway was modeled based on figure 1 from Zhou et al.