這個基因編碼半胱氨酸天冬氨酸蛋白酶（caspase）家族的一個成員。caspases的順序激活在細胞凋亡的執行階段起著重要作用。半胱天冬酶作為非活性的酶原存在，在保守的天冬氨酸殘基上進行蛋白水解處理，產生兩個大的和小的亞基，二聚以形成活性酶。該蛋白可通過凋亡體、細胞色素c蛋白復合物和凋亡肽酶激活因子1進行自蛋白分解和激活；這一步驟被認為是caspase激活級聯反應中最早的步驟之一。這種蛋白被認為在細胞凋亡中起中心作用，并且是一種腫瘤抑制因子。選擇性剪接導致多個轉錄變體。[由RefSeq提供，2013年5月]
This gene encodes a member of the cysteine-aspartic acid protease (caspase) family. Sequential activation of caspases plays a central role in the execution-phase of cell apoptosis. Caspases exist as inactive proenzymes which undergo proteolytic processing at conserved aspartic residues to produce two subunits, large and small, that dimerize to form the active enzyme. This protein can undergo autoproteolytic processing and activation by the apoptosome, a protein complex of cytochrome c and the apoptotic peptidase activating factor 1; this step is thought to be one of the earliest in the caspase activation cascade. This protein is thought to play a central role in apoptosis and to be a tumor suppressor. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, May 2013]