Ribosomal protein gene sequences map to human chromosomes 5, 8, and 17.
DNA sequences complementary to six mammalian ribosomal protein (r-protein) cDNAs are assigned to human chromosomal linkage groups in human-Chinese hamster hybrid cell clones. Ten r-protein DNA fragments map to chromosomes 5, 8 and 17, indicating that these important, housekeeping genes are distributed to multiple sites in the human genome. Each of the chromosome assignments, determined initially by surveying Chinese hamster-human hybrid cell clones with complex karyotypes using Chinese hamster and human cDNA probes, were confirmed in critical minipanels of highly reduced or monochromosomal hybrid cells. As all 10 fragments mapped to only three human chromosomes, r-protein sequences appear to be distributed nonrandomly within human DNA. The r-protein S14 sequence assigned to human chromosome 5 (5q23-5q33) rescues Chinese hamster emetine-resistance mutations (emt b) in interspecific hybrids. Therefore, this sequence corresponds to the transcriptionally active human RPS14 gene. In contrast, other r-protein DNA sequences examined likely are a mixture of functional genes and inactive pseudogenes.