Vesicle mediated protein sorting plays an important role in segregation of intracellular molecules into distinct organelles. Genetic studies in yeast have identified more than 40 vacuolar protein sorting (VPS) genes involved in vesicle transport to vacuoles. This gene is a member of the Sec-1 domain family, and encodes the human ortholog of rat Vps33b which is homologous to the yeast class C Vps33 protein. The mammalian class C vacuolar protein sorting proteins are predominantly associated with late endosomes/lysosomes, and like their yeast counterparts, may mediate vesicle trafficking steps in the endosome/lysosome pathway. Mutations in this gene are associated with arthrogryposis-renal dysfunction-cholestasis syndrome. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Jan 2014].