WAN CHEN 1 , GUO-FANG JIANG 1,2 * AND JING-JING CHEN 1
Ribosomal proteins S24 (RPS24) is one of the small subunit ribosomal proteins, and is likely involved
with the initiation and elongation process during protein synthesis. In this study, a full-length of RPS24 cDNA
was first cloned from the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana (L.) (Blattodea: Blattidae) by using rapid
amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) approaches. The full-length cDNA of the P. americana RPS24 (PaRPS24) was
of 572 bp, containing a 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of 33 bp, a 3′ UTR of 137 bp with a poly (A) tail, and an
open reading frame of 402 bp encoding a polypeptide of 133 amino acids with the predicted molecular weight
of 15.32 kDa and estimated isoelectric point of 10.86 (NCBI accession number: KJ650197). BLAST analysis
revealed that amino acids of PaRPS24 shared identity with Harpegnathos saltator 89%, Biphyllus lunatus 89%,
Carabus granulatus 89%, Camponotus floridanus 88%, Tribolium castaneum 88%, Solenopsis invicta 88%, and
Lygus lineolaris 86%, and so on. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis indicated that PaRPS24 could be detected in all
the tested tissues, in which the relative expression levels were 1.01-, 6.19-, 4.99-, 2.62- and 1.24-fold higher
in the testis, head, thorax, leg and gut than in the ovary, respectively. The results provided some important
information, and may help to understand the evolution of ribosomes and to unravel the function of the proteins
in insects.
