The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the histone deacetylase family, members of which deacetylate lysine residues on the N-terminal part of the core histones. Histone deacetylation modulates chromatin structure, and plays an important role in transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression, and developmental events. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Aug 2011],