Homing endonucleases, also known as meganucleases, are sequencespecific enzymes with large DNA recognition sites. These enzymes can be used to induce efficient homologous gene targeting in cells and plants, opening perspectives for genome engineering with applications in a wide series of fields, ranging from biotechnology to gene therapy. Here, we report the crystal structures at 2.0 and 2.1 Å resolution of the I-DmoI meganuclease in complex with its substrate DNA before and after cleavage, providing snapshots of the catalytic process. Our study suggests that I-DmoI requires only 2 cations instead of 3 for DNA cleavage. The structure sheds light onto the basis of DNA binding, indicating key residues responsible for nonpalindromic target DNA recognition. In silico and in vivo analysis of the I-DmoI DNA cleavage specificity suggests that despite the relatively few protein-base contacts, I-DmoI is highly specific when compared with other meganucleases. Our data open the door toward the generation of custom endonucleases for targeted genome engineering using the monomeric I-DmoI scaffold.gene targeting ͉ genetics ͉ protein-DNA interactions ͉ X-ray crystallography M eganucleases are sequence-specific enzymes that recognize large (12-45 bp) DNA target sites. These enzymes are often encoded by introns or inteins behaving as mobile genetic elements. They produce double strand breaks (DSB) that get repaired by homologous recombination with an intron-or intein-containing gene, resulting in the insertion of the intron or intein in that particular site (1). Meganucleases are being used to stimulate homologous gene targeting in the vicinity of their target sequences with the aim of improving current genome engineering approaches, alleviating the risks due to the randomly inserted transgenes (2, 3).The use of meganuclease-induced recombination has long been limited by the repertoire of natural meganucleases. In nature, meganucleases are essentially represented by homing endonucleases, a family of enzymes encoded by mobile genetic elements whose function is to initiate DSB induced recombination events in a process referred to as homing (4). The probability of finding a homing endonuclease cleavage site in a chosen gene is extremely low. Thus, making artificial meganucleases with custom-made substrate specificity is an intense area of research.Sequence homology has been used to classify homing endonucleases into 5 families, the largest one having the conserved LAGLI-DADG sequence motif. Homing endonucleases containing one such motif function as homodimers. In contrast, homing endonucleases containing 2 motifs are single chain proteins (5, 6). Structural information for several members of the LAGLIDADG endonuclease family indicate that these proteins adopt a similar active conformation as homodimers or as monomers with 2 separate domains (7-9). The LAGLIDADG motifs form structurally conserved ␣-helices tightly packed at the center of the interdomain or intermonomer interface. The last acidic residue of this LAGLI-DADG motif part...