The protein encoded by this gene is a 3'-exoribonuclease, with similarity to the RNase D family of 3'-exonucleases. It prefers poly(A) as the substrate, hence, efficiently degrades poly(A) tails of mRNAs. Exonucleolytic degradation of the poly(A) tail is often the first step in the decay of eukaryotic mRNAs. This protein is also involved in silencing of certain maternal mRNAs during oocyte maturation and early embryonic development, as well as in nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) of mRNAs that contain premature stop codons. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Aug 2008].