Sequence of cassava ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit precursor cDNA.

The cDNA sequence of cassava ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit rbcS precursor has been determined. The cassava rbcS precursor cDNA contains 266 nucleotides (nts) of 5' untranslated region, 546 nts of coding region, 280 nts of 3' untranslated region and a poly (A) tail of 70 nts. The 5' untranslated region is characterized by some unusual features which include two plausible open reading frames, several repeated sequences and a putative Shine-Dalgarno sequence. The predicted amino acid sequence shows that the precursor consists of a 59 amino acid transit peptide followed by the 123 amino acid rbcS sequence. Cassava rbcS shares 82% amino acid sequence identity with a rubber rbcS sequence.