| ID | Sequence | Length | GC content |
|---|---|---|---|
| AGUUGGCUACUCGCCAUGGACGAAGCGGAUCGGCGGCUCCUGCGGCGGU… | 2808 nt | 0.5228 | |
| AGUUGGCUACUCGCCAUGGACGAAGCGGAUCGGCGGCUCCUGCGGCGGU… | 2358 nt | 0.5115 | |
| AGAUGCGUCCCGGGGAGUGGGCGGUGACGCGGUGGCAGGUUCUGGGGAC… | 2869 nt | 0.5295 |
This gene encodes 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 two subunits, large and small, that dimerize to form the active enzyme. This protein can undergo autoproteolytic processing and activation by the apoptosome, a protein complex of cytochrome c and the apoptotic peptidase activating factor 1; this step is thought to be one of the earliest in the caspase activation cascade. This protein is thought to play a central role in apoptosis and to be a tumor suppressor. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, May 2013]
A study in rats demonstrated that the CASP9 mRNA level increased 1.9-fold on day 3 and 2.5-fold on day 5 post-wounding, with corresponding protein positivity in 10-30% and 30-50% of cells on those days, respectively, supporting its use for wound age estimation [Akar et al. DOI:10.1515/tjb-2017-0131]. A review of post-mortem interval (PMI) estimation notes that in human tissues, the CASP9 immunoreactivity increases from 4-8 hours post-mortem, remains stable until 24 hours, and then declines [Lopez et al. DOI:10.1016/J.Forsciint.2025.112412].