Members of the eye absent (EYA) family were originally characterised in fly eye development. EYA proteins are both transcriptional activators and tyrosine phosphatases [, ], and have been shown to dephosphorylate H2AX, promoting repair and cell survival in the response to DNA damage []. EYA proteins (EYA1-4) are normally expressed early in development [, ]. Their phosphatase activity regulates Six1-Dach-Eya transcriptional effects in precursor cell proliferation and survival in mammalian organogenesis [].EYA2 plays an important role in hypaxial muscle development together with Six1 and Dach2; in this it is functionally redundant with EYA1 []. EYA2 is a necessary co-factor for many of the metastasis promoting functions of Six1 [].