Cohesion maintenance factor; involved in sister chromatid condensation and cohesion; colocalizes with cohesin on chromosomes; performs its cohesin maintenance function in pre-anaphase cells by protecting the integrity of the cohesion complex; regulates homolog pairing and facilitates synaptonemal complex formation, axis formation, interhomolog recombination and synapsis during meiosis; relocalizes to the cytosol in response to hypoxia; scaffolding protein contains 26 HEAT repeats