This gene encodes a DNA topoisomerase, an enzyme that controls and alters the topologic states of DNA during transcription. This enzyme catalyzes the transient breaking and rejoining of a single strand of DNA which allows the strands to pass through one another, thus reducing the number of supercoils and altering the topology of DNA. This enzyme forms a complex with BLM which functions in the regulation of recombination in somatic cells. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms. [provided by RefSeq, Mar 2016],