The Drosophila gene Yippee reveals a novel family of putative zinc binding proteins highly conserved among eukaryotes.
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.
Department of Genetics, University of Stockholm, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
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Roxström-Lindquist
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Faye
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells; D015870:Gene Expression; D017344:Genes, Insect; D006801:Humans; D007136:Immunoglobulins; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D016335:Zinc Fingers
D002352:Carrier Proteins; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D007136:Immunoglobulins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C428623:Yippee protein, Drosophila; C066846:hemolin