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Official Full Name: DNA fragmentation factor subunit beta
Also known as: CAD; CPAN; DFF2; DFF40; DFF-40
Apoptosis is the cell death process that eliminates toxic and/or useless cells during mammalian development. The apoptotic process is accompanied by shrinkage and fragmentation of cells and nuclei and degradation of chromosomal DNA into nucleosomal units. DNA fragmentation factor (DFF) is a heterodimeric protein of 40-kD (DFFB) and 45-kD (DFFA) subunits. DFFA is a substrate of caspase-3, which triggers DNA fragmentation during apoptosis. DFF is activated when DFFA is cleaved by caspase-3. The cleavage fragment of DFFA is separated from DFFB, which is the active component of DFF. DFFB has been found to trigger DNA fragmentation and chromatin condensation during apoptosis. Alternately spliced transcript variants of this gene have been found to encode different isoforms, but the biological validity of some of these variants has not been determined.