The protein is part of a complex that relieves repressive chromatin structures, allowing the transcriptional machinery to access its targets more effectively. SNF5 is an essential part of the esBAF (mouse embryonic stem cell specific SWI/SNF complex) and is necessary for early embryogenesis and hepatocyte differentiation . In addition, SNF5 is considered to be a tumor suppressor protein; inactivating mutations have been indentified in a large number of malignant rhabdoid tumors.
