Functional Dissection of YA, an Essential, Developmentally Regulated Nuclear Lamina Protein in Drosophila melanogaster

The Drosophila YA protein is a nuclear lamina component whose function is essential to initiate embryonic development. To identify regions of YA required for its action in its normal cellular context, we made targeted mutations in the YA protein and tested their consequences in flies and embryos in vivo. We found that critical amino acids are distributed along the length of the YA molecule, with functionally important regions including the N- and the C-terminal ends, the cysteine residues in YA’s two potential zinc fingers, a serine/threonine-rich region, and a potential maturation-promoting factor or mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation target site, ITPIR. In addition, several Ya mutations showed intragenic complementation, with N-terminal mutations complementing C-terminal mutations, suggesting that YA proteins interact with one another. In support of this interaction, we demonstrated by immunoprecipitation that YA molecules are present in complexes with each other. Finally, we showed that the C-terminal 179 amino acids of YA are necessary to target, or retain, YA in the nuclear envelope.