The Golgi complex plays a key role in the sorting and modification of proteins exported from the endoplasmic reticulum. The protein encoded by this gene is a type II Golgi transmembrane protein. It processes proteins synthesized in the rough endoplasmic reticulum and assists in the transport of protein cargo through the Golgi apparatus. The expression of this gene has been observed to be upregulated in response to viral infection. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding the same protein have been described for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2009].