Ribosomal protein S14 is encoded by a pair of highly conserved, adjacent genes on the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster.

We describe a Drosophila DNA clone of tandemly duplicated genes encoding an amino acid sequence nearly identical to human ribosomal protein S14 and yeast rp59. Despite their remarkably similar exons, the locations and sizes of introns differ radically among the Drosophila, human, and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) ribosomal protein genes. Transcripts of both Drosophila RPS14 genes were detected in embryonic and adult tissues and are the same length as mammalian S14 message. Drosophila RPS14 was mapped to region 7C5-9 on the X chromosome. This interval also encodes a previously characterized Minute locus, M(1)7C.