The amino acid sequence of rat ribosomal protein S16 was deduced from the sequence of nucleotides in a recombinant cDNA and confirmed from the NH2-terminal amino acid sequence of the protein. S16 contains 145 amino acids (the NH2-terminal methionine is removed after translation of the mRNA) and has a molecular mass of 16304. Hybridization of the cDNA to digests of nuclear DNA suggests that there are 11–13 copies of the S16 gene. The mRNA for the protein is about 700 nucleotides in length. Rat S16 is homologous to mouse S16 (there are 2 amino acid changes and a residue is deleted) and related to Halobacterium morismortui ribosomal protein S3 and to Escherichia coli S9.
