Growth Arrest Specific Protein 2 (GAS2)

Growth arrest-specific protein 2 is a caspase-3 substrate that plays a role in regulating microfilament and cell shape changes during apoptosis. It can also modulate cell susceptibility to p53-dependent apoptosis by inhibiting calpain activity. Two alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding the same protein have been described for this gene.The predicted 313-amino acid human protein differs in only 8 residues from mouse Gas2. When expressed in mammalian cells, human GAS2 localized at the actin cytoskeleton, along the stress fibers and at the plasma membrane. Like the mouse protein, GAS2 is proteolytically cleaved in apoptotic cells. Gas2 colocalizes with actin fibers at the cell border and along the stress fibers in growth-arrested mouse fibroblasts.