This gene encodes a member of a family of integral membrane proteins that mediate the voltage-dependent potassium ion permeability of excitable membranes. Alternative splicing is thought to result in two transcript variants encoding isoforms that differ at their C-termini. These isoforms have had conflicting names in the literature: the longer isoform has been called both "b" and "alpha", while the shorter isoform has been called both "a" and "beta" (PMIDs 1432046, 12091563). [provided by RefSeq, Oct 2014] see less This gene encodes a member of a family of integral membrane proteins that mediate the voltage-dependent potassium ion permeability of excitable membranes. Alternative splicing is thought to result in two transcript variants encoding isoforms that differ at their C-termini. These isoforms have had conflicting names in the literature: the longer isoform has been called both "b" and "alpha", while... see more