Birc5 - baculoviral IAP repeat-containing 5

This gene is a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) gene family, which encode negative regulatory proteins that prevent apoptotic cell death. IAP family members usually contain multiple baculovirus IAP repeat (BIR) domains, but this gene encodes proteins with only a single BIR domain. The encoded proteins also lack a C-terminus RING finger domain. In humans, gene expression is high during fetal development and in most tumors yet low in adult tissues. Antisense transcripts have been identified in human that regulate this gene's expression. At least three transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been found for this gene, although at least one of these transcript variants is a nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) candidate. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]