Defenzini su cisteinskim kationima bogati polipeptidi koji su važni u imunski odgovor na invaziju mikroorganizama. Protein kodiran ovim genom se luči i član je porodice beta-defenzinskih proteina. Geni beta-defensina nalaze se u nekoliko klastera u čitavom genomu, s tim da se ovaj gen preslikava na klaster u 20p13. Kodirani protein je vrlo sličan epididimisno specifičnom sekretornom proteinu (ESP13.2) kod Maqaca cynomolgus (makak majmun koji jede rakove).[4]
Sugerira se da uobičajena varijacija gena DEFB126 generira abnormalnu iRNK i može donekle oslabiti plodnost.[5]
Rodríguez-Jiménez FJ, Krause A, Schulz S, Forssmann WG, Conejo-Garcia JR, Schreeb R, Motzkus D (Feb 2003). "Distribution of new human beta-defensin genes clustered on chromosome 20 in functionally different segments of epididymis". Genomics. 81 (2): 175–83. doi:10.1016/S0888-7543(02)00034-4. PMID12620395.
Suzuki Y, Yoshitomo-Nakagawa K, Maruyama K, Suyama A, Sugano S (Oct 1997). "Construction and characterization of a full length-enriched and a 5'-end-enriched cDNA library". Gene. 200 (1–2): 149–56. doi:10.1016/S0378-1119(97)00411-3. PMID9373149.
Maruyama K, Sugano S (Jan 1994). "Oligo-capping: a simple method to replace the cap structure of eukaryotic mRNAs with oligoribonucleotides". Gene. 138 (1–2): 171–4. doi:10.1016/0378-1119(94)90802-8. PMID8125298.