The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the CDK subfamily of the Ser/Thr protein kinase family. The CDK subfamily members are highly similar to the gene products of S. cerevisiae cdc28, and S. pombe cdc2, and are known to be essential for cell cycle progression. This kinase has been shown to play a role in cellular proliferation and its function is limited to cell cycle G2-M phase. Several alternatively spliced transcripts encoding different isoforms, some of which use non-AUG (CUG) translation initiation codon, have been found for this gene.