Calpains represent a ubiquitous, well-conserved family of calcium-dependent cysteine proteases. The calpain proteins are heterodimers consisting of an invariant small subunit and variable large subunits. The large catalytic subunit has four domains: domain I, the N-terminal regulatory domain that is processed upon calpain activation; domain II, the protease domain; domain III, a linker domain of unknown function; and domain IV, the calmodulin-like calcium-binding domain. This gene encodes a large subunit. It is an atypical calpain in that it lacks the calmodulin-like calcium-binding domain and instead has a divergent C-terminal domain. It is similar in organization to calpains 5 and 6. This gene is associated with type 2 or non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), and is located within the NIDDM1 region. Multiple alternative transcript variants have been described for this gene.