Isolation and characterization of medaka ribosomal protein S3a (fte-1) cDNA and gene

Many ribosomal protein genes were cloned from different organisms. We describe here, for the first time, the isolation of the ribosomal protein S3a cDNA and gene from a teleost - the medaka (Oryzias latipes). The cDNA sequence is 863bp long and encodes an open reading frame of 266 amino acids. The gene is 2927bp long and contains six introns and five introns. The levels of the S3a mRNA are elevated during embryonal development. Transcription of the gene was also detected in different tissues of adult medaka. At the 5' untranslated region of the cDNA, the terminal pyrimidine tract, a common feature with all ribosomal protein genes, was found. snoRNA sequences were found in introns 3 and 5, similar to human and mouse U73b and U73a.