This family is involved in the chronological life-span of S. cerevisiae. Over-expression leads to an extended viability of wild-type strains, indicating a role in regulation [1]. There are four cysteine residues conserved in the N-terminal region involved in zinc binding and have been shown to be essential for protein functions. Ecl1-family proteins are essential for sexual development caused by zinc depletion in S. pombe. They are also important for cellular response to zinc limitation [2].

1: Identification and characterization of an Ecl1-family gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Azuma K, Ohtsuka H, Mita S, Murakami H, Aiba H; Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2009;73:2787-2789. PMID:19966476

2: Ecl1 is a zinc-binding protein involved in the zinc-limitation-dependent extension of chronological life span in fission yeast. Shimasaki T, Ohtsuka H, Naito C, Azuma K, Tenno T, Hiroaki H, Murakami H, Aiba H; Mol Genet Genomics. 2017;292:475-481. PMID:28160081