The modification of proteins with ubiquitin is an important cellular mechanism for targeting abnormal or short-lived proteins for degradation. Ubiquitination involves at least three classes of enzymes: ubiquitin-activating enzymes, or E1s, ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes, or E2s, and ubiquitin-protein ligases, or E3s. This gene encodes a member of the E3 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme family. The encoded protein may interact with other proteins and play a role in stress response. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding the same protein isoform have been identified for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008].
Function: E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase which accepts ubiquitin from an E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme in the form of a thioester and then directly transfers the ubiquitin to targeted substrates (By similarity).