這個基因編碼的蛋白質是rad51蛋白家族的一員。rad51家族成員與細菌reca和釀酒酵母rad51高度相似，參與dna的同源重組和修復。該蛋白能與ssdna結合蛋白rpa和rad52相互作用，在dna的同源配對和鏈轉移中發揮重要作用。這種蛋白質也被發現與brca1和brca2相互作用，這可能對細胞對dna損傷的反應很重要。brca2可調節該蛋白的細胞內定位和dna結合能力。在BRCA2失活后失去這些控制可能是導致基因組不穩定和腫瘤發生的關鍵事件。已發現該基因編碼不同亞型的多個轉錄變體。[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]