Glycerol dehydrogenase; involved in an alternative pathway for glycerol catabolism used under microaerobic conditions; also has mRNA binding activity; member of the aldo-keto reductase (AKR) family; human homolog AKR1B1 can complement yeast null mutant; protein abundance increases in response to DNA replication stress; GCY1 has a paralog, YPR1, that arose from the whole genome duplication