Gene:
caspase 7, apoptosis-related cysteine protease
Gene ID:
198194
Symbol:
CASP7
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 precursor of this caspase can be cleaved by caspase 3 and 10. It has been shown to be activated upon cell death stimuli and induce apoptosis. Alternative splicing of this gene results in 4 transcript variants, which encode 3 distinct isoforms.