| Gene summary | | This gene encodes a member of the family of pyridine nucleotide oxidoreductases. This protein catalyzes the reduction of thioredoxin, and is implicated in the defense against oxidative stress. It contains a selenocysteine (Sec) residue at its active site. The selenocysteine is encoded by the UGA codon, which normally signals translation termination. The 3' UTR of Sec-containing genes have a common stem-loop structure, the sec insertion sequence (SECIS), which is necessary for the recognition of UGA as a Sec codon rather than as a stop signal. There is evidence for the use of both an upstream non-AUG (CUG) translation initiation site, and an in-frame, downstream AUG, leading to different isoforms. [provided by RefSeq] |