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。編碼蛋白的前體被caspase 3和caspase 10切割，在細胞死亡刺激下被激活并誘導凋亡。另外，已經觀察到該基因編碼多個亞型的剪接轉錄變體。[由RefSeq提供，2012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. The precursor of the encoded protein is cleaved by caspase 3 and 10, is activated upon cell death stimuli and induces apoptosis. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding multiple isoforms have been observed for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, May 2012]