The BEN domain is found in diverse animal proteins such as BANP/SMAR1, NAC1 and the Drosophila mod(mdg4) isoform C, in the chordopoxvirus virosomal protein E5R and in several proteins of polydnaviruses. Computational analysis suggests that the BEN domain mediates protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions during chromatin organisation and transcription [1]. The BEN domain-containing protein 3 (BEND3) is shown to interact (via BEN domains 1 and 3) with ERCC6L (via N-terminal TPR repeat and SNF2 HeliC region of ERCC6L) which stimulates the ERCC6L translocase and ATPase activities [2].

1: BEN: a novel domain in chromatin factors and DNA viral proteins. Abhiman S, Iyer LM, Aravind L; Bioinformatics. 2008;24:458-461. PMID:18203771

2: A novel TPR-BEN domain interaction mediates PICH-BEND3 association. Pitchai GP, Kaulich M, Bizard AH, Mesa P, Yao Q, Sarlos K, Streicher WW, Nigg EA, Montoya G, Hickson ID; Nucleic Acids Res. 2017;45:11413-11424. PMID:28977671