Background:

Apoptosis is defined by several morphologic nuclear changes, including chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation. This gene encodes a nuclear protein that induces apoptotic chromatin condensation after activation by caspase-3, without inducing DNA fragmentation. This protein has also been shown to be a component of a splicing-dependent multiprotein exon junction complex (EJC) that is deposited at splice junctions on mRNAs, as a consequence of pre-mRNA splicing. It may thus be involved in mRNA metabolism associated with splicing. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been described for this gene.