This is a family of proteins that contain the GIY-YIG domain, predominantly found in Bacteria, Fungi and plants (i.e. in Protein EFFECTOR OF TRANSCRIPTION 1,2 and 3 from Arabidopsis) but also in viruses. This is a well characterised domain among the members of the GYI-YIG endonuclease family, which is involved in several cellular processes such as DNA repair and recombination and transfer of mobile genetic elements [1-2].

1: EFFECTOR OF TRANSCRIPTION2 is involved in xylem differentiation and includes a functional DNA single strand cutting domain. Ivanov R, Tiedemann J, Czihal A, Schallau A, Diep le H, Mock HP, Claus B, Tewes A, Baumlein H; Dev Biol. 2008;313:93-106. PMID:17991462

2: Catalytic domain structure and hypothesis for function of GIY-YIG intron endonuclease I-TevI. Van Roey P, Meehan L, Kowalski JC, Belfort M, Derbyshire V; Nat Struct Biol 2002;9:806-811. PMID:12379841