Gene:
caspase 2, apoptosis-related cysteine protease (neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally down-regulated 2)
Gene ID:
205829
Symbol:
CASP2
Species:
1000
Description:
This gene encodes a protein which is 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 2 subunits, large and small, that dimerize to form the active enzyme. The proteolytic cleavage of this protein is induced by a variety of apoptotic stimuli. Alternative splicing of this gene results in four transcript variants which encode different isoforms.