ISOLATION OF EUGLENA-GRACILIS CHLOROPLAST 5S RIBOSOMAL-RNA AND MAPPING THE 5S RIBOSOMAL-RNA GENE ON CHLOROPLAST DNA

Ribosomal RNA (5S) from E. gracilis chloroplasts was isolated by preparative electrophoresis, labeled in vitro with 125I and hybridized to restriction nuclease fragments from chloroplast DNA or cloned chloroplast DNA segments. Euglena chloroplast 5S rRNA is encoded in the chloroplast genome. The coding region of 5S rRNA was positioned within the 5.6 kilobase pair (kbp) repeat which also codes for 16S and 23S rRNA. There are three 5S rRNA genes on the 130 kbp genome. The order of RNAs within a single repeat is 16S-23S-5S. The organization and size of the Euglena chloroplast ribosomal repeat is very similar to the ribosomal RNA operons of Escherichia coli.