Nucleotide sequence of a full-length cDNA coding for the ribosomal L44 protein of Trypanosoma brucei.

In the process of characterizing transcripts from genes present in the VSG gene expression site of Trypanosoma brucei (ESAGS: ref. 1), we accidentally cloned a cDNA showing high sequence homology to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae and human ribosomal L44 genes. Fig. 1 shows the sequence of the cDNA, which appears to be complete, since it starts with the mini-exon normally found at the beginning of trypanosome transcripts (2) (underlined), and ends with a poly(A) tail. This cDNA contains