Using molecular repertoires to identify high-affinity peptide ligands of the WW domain of human and mouse YAP

The WW domain is a globular protein domain that is involved in mediating protein-protein interaction and that ultimately participates in various intracellular signaling events. The domain binds to polyproline ligands containing the xPPxY consensus (where x signifies any amino acid, P is proline and Y is tyrosine). One of the first WW domain-ligand links that was characterized in vitro was the WW domain of Yes-Associated Protein (YAP) and its WBP-1 ligand. To further characterize this molecular interaction, we used two independent approaches, both of which focused on the mutational analysis of the WBP-1 ligand. We screened repertoires of synthetic decamer peptides containing the xPPxY core of WBP-1 in which all ten positions were sequentially replaced with the remaining amino acids. In addition, we screened decamer repertoires with all permutations of the amino acids which individually increased the binding to the WW domain of YAP, as compared to the wild type. In a parallel approach, we used a phage-displayed combinatorial peptide library biased for the presence of two consecutive prolines to study ligand preferences for the WW domain of YAP. Interestingly, these two lines of investigation converged and yielded the core sequence PPPPYP, which is preferred by the YAP-WW domain. This sequence was found within the p53 (tumor suppressor) binding protein-2, a probable cognate or alternative ligand interacting with YAP.