The product of this gene is a member of the GCK group III family of kinases, which are a subset of the Ste20-like kinases.The encoded protein contains an amino-terminal kinase domain, and a carboxy-terminal regulatory domain that mediates homodimerization.The protein kinase localizes to the Golgi apparatus and is specifically activated by binding to the Golgi matrix protein GM130.It is also cleaved by caspase-3 in vitro, and may function in the apoptotic pathway.Several alternatively spliced transcript variants of this gene have been described, but the full-length nature of some of these variants has not been determined.[provided by RefSeq]