ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MOUSE RIBOSOMAL-PROTEIN S7 GENE

We have isolated and characterized the single intron-containing gene e ncoding the mouse ribosomal protein S7. The mouse 129SV S7 gene has se ven exons and six introns spanning about 5000 nucleotides. The exon-in tron structure of the gene is similar to other vertebrate homologues. Southern blot analysis showed that in addition to the isolated single- copy intron-containing gene, there are 10-12 members in the mouse S7 g ene family, which are all most probably processed pseudogenes. The pro moter region of rpS7 contains several evolutionarily conserved putativ e regulatory elements. The main transcription start site was mapped to a T residue within a polypyrimidine tract, 79 nucleotides upstream fr om AUG codon.