A cloned human ribosomal protein gene functions in rodent cells.

Cloned fragments of human ribosomal protein S14 DNA (RPS14) were transfected into cultured Chinese hamster (CHO) cells. Transient expression assays indicated that DNA with as little as 31 base pairs of upstream flanking sequence was transcribed into a polyadenylated, 650-base mRNA that is largely bound to the polyribosomes. In these respects the exogenous human S14 message appeared to function normally in CHO cells. Interestingly, transcription of human RPS14 did not require the TATA sequence located 26 base pairs upstream of exon 1. Stably transformed clones were selected from cultures of emetine-resistant CHO cells (Emr-2) after transfection with pSV2Neo-human RPS14 constructs. Human RPS14 complemented the mutationally based drug resistance of the Chinese hamster cells, demonstrating that the cloned human ribosomal protein gene is functional in rodent cells. Analysis of transformed cells with different amounts of integrated RPS14 indicated that human S14 mRNA levels are not tightly regulated by CHO cells. In contrast, the steady-state S14 level fluctuated only slightly, if at all, in transformed clones whose S14 message contents differed by more than 30-fold. These data support the conclusion that expression of human RPS14 is regulated, at least partially, posttranscriptionally.