The de novo synthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides is required for mammalian cells to proliferate. This gene encodes a trifunctional protein which is associated with the enzymatic activities of the first 3 enzymes in the 6-step pathway of pyrimidine biosynthesis: carbamoylphosphate synthetase (CPS II), aspartate transcarbamoylase, and dihydroorotase. This protein is regulated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, which indicates a direct link between activation of the MAPK cascade and de novo biosynthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]. Publication Note: This RefSeq record includes a subset of the publications that are available for this gene. Please see the Gene record to access additional publications.
Function: This protein is a "fusion" protein encoding four enzymatic activities of the pyrimidine pathway (GATase, CPSase, ATCase and DHOase).