This gene functions in the regulation of autophagy, a lysosomal degradation pathway. This gene also functions as an antisense transcript in the posttranscriptional regulation of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase 3 gene, which has 3' overlap with this gene on the opposite strand. Mutations in this gene and disruption of the autophagy process have been associated with multiple cancers. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2012].