Caspase-3 is a caspase protein that interacts with caspase-8 and caspase-9. It is encoded by the CASP3 gene. CASP3 orthologs have been identified in numerous mammals for which complete genome data are available. Unique orthologs are also present in birds, lizards, lissamphibians, and teleosts. Caspase-3 shares many of the typical characteristics common to all currently-known caspases. For example, its active site contains a cysteine residue (Cys-163) and histidine residue (His-121) that stabilize the peptide bond cleavage of a protein sequence to the carboxy-terminal side of an aspartic acid when it is part of a particular 4-amino acid sequence. This specificity allows caspases to be incredibly selective, with a 20,000-fold preference for aspartic acid over glutamic acid. A key feature of caspases in the cell is that they are present as zymogens, termed procaspases, which are inactive until a biochemical change causes their activation. Each procaspase has an N-terminal large subunit of about 20 kDa followed by a smaller subunit of about 10 kDa, called p20 and p10, respectively.