THE INTRON-CONTAINING RIBOSOMAL PROTEIN-ENCODING GENES L5, L7A AND L37A ARE UNLINKED IN CHICKEN

Chicken ribosomal protein (rp)-encoding genes are currently being stud ied at the nucleotide level and three independent recombinant phages h ave been isolated from chicken genomic libraries using cloned cDNA pro bes. Each of these was shown to include an intron-containing rp gene o f chicken (L5, L7a, L37a). In this study the chromosomal location of t hese three intron-containing rp from the large subunit of the chicken ribosome was determined by fluorescence in situ hybridization. L7a map ped to a microchromosome, whereas L5 and L37a mapped to macrochromosom es 8 and 7, respectively. The results demonstrate that these functiona lly related genes are widely dispersed in the genome. Furthermore, as in the case of many other evolutionarily advanced eukaryotes, there is no apparent linkage of rp and rRNA genes.