This gene encodes a member of the phosphatidic acid preferring-phospholipase A1 family. The encoded protein is localized to endoplasmic reticulum exit sites and plays a critical role in ER-Golgi transport as part of the multimeric coat protein II complex. An orthologous gene in frogs is required for normal neural crest cell development, suggesting that this gene may play a role in Waardenburg syndrome neural crest defects. Alternatively spliced transcript variants have been observed for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Feb 2011]