这个基因编码的蛋白质是rad51蛋白家族的一员。rad51家族成员与细菌reca和酿酒酵母rad51高度相似，参与dna的同源重组和修复。该蛋白能与ssdna结合蛋白rpa和rad52相互作用，在dna的同源配对和链转移中发挥重要作用。这种蛋白质也被发现与brca1和brca2相互作用，这可能对细胞对dna损伤的反应很重要。brca2可调节该蛋白的细胞内定位和dna结合能力。在BRCA2失活后失去这些控制可能是导致基因组不稳定和肿瘤发生的关键事件。已发现该基因编码不同亚型的多个转录变体。[由RefSeq提供，2009年8月]
The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the RAD51 protein family. RAD51 family members are highly similar to bacterial RecA and Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rad51, and are known to be involved in the homologous recombination and repair of DNA. This protein can interact with the ssDNA-binding protein RPA and RAD52, and it is thought to play roles in homologous pairing and strand transfer of DNA. This protein is also found to interact with BRCA1 and BRCA2, which may be important for the cellular response to DNA damage. BRCA2 is shown to regulate both the intracellular localization and DNA-binding ability of this protein. Loss of these controls following BRCA2 inactivation may be a key event leading to genomic instability and tumorigenesis. Multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Aug 2009]