Gangliosides are membrane-bound glycosphingolipids containing sialic acid. Ganglioside GD3 is known to be important for cell adhesion and growth of cultured malignant cells. The protein encoded by this gene is a type II membrane protein that catalyzes the transfer of sialic acid from CMP-sialic acid to GM3 to produce gangliosides GD3 and GT3. The encoded protein may be found in the Golgi apparatus and is a member of glycosyltransferase family 29. Alternatively spliced transcript variants have been found for this gene.,ST8SIA1,GD3S,SIAT8,SIAT8-A,SIAT8A,ST8SiaI,Cancer,Signal Transduction,Cell Biology & Developmental Biology,Cytoskeleton,Extracellular Matrix,Endocrine & Metabolism,ST8SIA1