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The Drosophila gene Yippee reveals a novel family of putative zinc binding proteins highly conserved among eukaryotes
Author(s) -
RoxströmLindquist K.,
Faye I.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
insect molecular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.955
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2583
pISSN - 0962-1075
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2583.2001.00239.x
Subject(s) - biology , drosophila (subgenus) , gene , zinc finger , genetics , gene family , conserved sequence , drosophila melanogaster , computational biology , evolutionary biology , genome , transcription factor , peptide sequence
An intracellular Drosophila protein, Yippee, was identified in a yeast interaction trap screen as physically interacting with Hyalophora cecropia Hemolin. The Yippee gene was isolated, structurally characterized, and mapped to the region 12A on the X‐chromosome. Yippee contains a putative zinc‐finger‐like metal binding domain. It is the first characterized member of a conserved gene family of proteins present in diverse eukaryotic organisms, ranging from cellular slime mould to humans. A human cDNA clone was isolated and shown to be 76% identical to Drosophila Yippee. Yippee is ubiquitously expressed in different developmental stages of Drosophila and in different fetal tissues from human. Although the Hemolin–Yippee interaction remains to be further elucidated, the high degree of Yippee sequence conservation between a wide range of species suggests that this protein is of general importance in eukaryotes.