Construction, characterization and expression of full length cDNA clone of sheep YAP1 gene

RT-PCR, 5'RACE, 3'RACE were used to clone sheep full length cDNA sequence of YAP1 (Yes-associated protein 1), eukaryotic expression plasmid and a mutant that cannot be phosphorylated at Ser42 was successfully constructed. The amino acid sequence analysis revealed that sheep YAP1 gene encoded water-soluble protein and its relative molecular weight and isoelectric point was 44,079.0 Da and 4.91, respectively. Sub-cellular localization of YAP1 was in the nucleus, it is hydrophilic non-transmembrane and non-secreted protein. YAP1 protein contained 33 phosphorylation sites, seven glycosylation sites and two WW domains. The secondary structure of YAP1 was mainly composed of random coil, while the tertiary structure of domain area showed a forniciform helix structure. YAP1 gene was expressed in different tissues, the highest expression was in kidney and the lowest was in hypothalamus. The CDS of sheep YAP1was amplified by RT-PCR from healthy sheep longissimus dorsi muscle, cloned into pMD19-T simple vector by T/A ligation. YAP1 coding region was further sub-cloned into pEGFP-C1 vector by T4 Ligase to construct a eukaryotic expression plasmid and then make the eukaryotic expression vector as the template to construct the phosphorylation site mutant. PCR, restriction enzyme and sequencing were used to confirm the recombinant plasmid. The sheep full-length YAP1 cDNA sequence is 1712 in length encoding 403 amino acids. It was confirmed that the sheep YAP1 CDS was correctly inserted into eukaryotic expression vector and serine had been mutated to alanine by PCR, restriction digestion and sequencing. The result showed that the recombinant plasmid pEGFP-C1-YAP1 and pEGFP-C1-YAP1 S42A was constructed correctly, this will help for further studies on the YAP1 protein expression and its biological activities.