The product of this gene belongs to the syntaxin/epimorphin family of proteins. The syntaxins are a large protein family implicated in the targeting and fusion of intracellular transport vesicles. The product of this gene regulates epithelial-mesenchymal interactions and epithelial cell morphogenesis and activation. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been identified. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008].