This gene encodes a protein that mediates the attachment of erythroblasts to macrophages. This attachment promotes terminal maturation and enucleation of erythroblasts, presumably by suppressing apoptosis. The encoded protein is an integral membrane protein with the N-terminus on the extracellular side and the C-terminus on the cytoplasmic side of the cell. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2014].