Glutathione is important for a variety of biological functions, including protection of cells from oxidative damage by free radicals, detoxification of xenobiotics, and membrane transport. The protein encoded by this gene functions as a homodimer to catalyze the second step of glutathione biosynthesis, which is the ATP-dependent conversion of gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteine to glutathione. Defects in this gene are a cause of glutathione synthetase deficiency.