Organization and nucleotide sequences of ten ribosomal protein genes from the region equivalent to the S10 operon in the archaebacterium, Halobacterium halobium.

A determination was made of the nucleotide sequence of the 7340-bp region of a ribosomal protein gene cluster of Halobacterium halobium, which is equivalent to the S10 operon of Escherichia coli. The sequence was analyzed with the codonpreference program deduced from the halobacterial codon usage table that showed a very high GC content of the third codon position. The sequence was comprised of a string of 13 tightly linked ORFs. Most of the ORFs were homologous with ribosomal protein genes (ORF1-ORF2-rpl3-rpl4-rpl23--rpl2- rps19-rpl22-rps3-rpl29-ORF11-rps17-r pl14). The 13-gene string was preceded by three putative AT-rich promoter sequences. The order of the genes in H. halobium essentially agreed with that of the corresponding genes of E. coli (S10-operon), except for certain deletions or insertions of additional protein genes.