U82, a novel snoRNA identified from the fifth intron of human and mouse nucleolin gene

A novel snoRNA, designated as U82,was found from the sequence analysis of the 5th intron of human and mouse nucleolin gene. The snoRNA U82 has characteristic boxes C, D and D' and 11 nucleotides (nt) antisense complementarity to the 18S rRNA. Presumably U82 functions as a guide in the methylation of residue A1678 in human 18S rRNA. Northern blot analysis with various oligodeoxynucleotide probes showed that human and mouse U82 is expressed as RNA Variants with length of 70 (+/- 1) and 67 (+/- 1) nt in HeLa and mouse C127 cells. Most probably, the 70 nt variant of U82. is encoded by nucleolin gene 5th intron. The 67 nt variant of U82 could be a transcript of another gene, the genomic locus of which remains unknown. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.