The nuclear pore complex is a massive structure that extends across the nuclear envelope, forming a gateway that regulates the flow of macromolecules between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. Nucleoporins are the main components of the nuclear pore complex in eukaryotic cells. This gene encodes a nucleoporin protein that localizes both to the basket of the pore and to the nuclear entry of the central gated channel of the pore. The encoded protein is a target of caspase cysteine proteases that play a central role in programmed cell death by apoptosis. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms. [provided by RefSeq, Dec 2016]