Casp3 - caspase 3

This gene encodes a protein that belongs to a highly conserved family of cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteases that function as essential regulators of programmed cell death through apoptosis. Members of this family contain an N-terminal pro-domain and require cleavage at specific aspartate residues to become mature. The protein encoded by this gene belongs to a subgroup of cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteases that are activated by initiator caspases and that perform the proteolytic cleavage of apoptotic target proteins. Mice defective for this gene exhibit a variety of phenotypes including reduced neuronal apoptosis resulting in hyperplasias, hearing loss, attenuated osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow stromal stem cells, and pre- and post-natal lethality. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2015]