Protein involved in meiotic crossing over; component of the Synaptonemal Complex (SC) along with Ecm11p; required for the efficient loading of the SC transverse filament protein, Zip1p; promotes SUMOylation of Ecm11p; mutants are delayed in meiotic nuclear division and are defective in synaptonemal complex assembly; transcription is regulated by Ume6p and induced in response to alpha factor