This gene encodes a member of a family of integral membrane proteins that mediate the voltage-dependent potassium ion permeability of excitable membranes. Alternative splicing is thought to result in two transcript variants encoding isoforms that differ at their C-termini. These isoforms have had conflicting names in the literature: the longer isoform has been called both 'b' and 'alpha', while the shorter isoform has been called both 'a' and 'beta' (PMIDs 1432046, 12091563). [provided by RefSeq, Oct 2014].