Mammalian mitochondrial ribosomal proteins are encoded by nuclear genes and help in protein synthesis within the mitochondrion. Mitochondrial ribosomes (mitoribosomes) consist of a small 28S subunit and a large 39S subunit. They have an estimated 75% protein to rRNA composition compared to prokaryotic ribosomes, where this ratio is reversed. Another difference between mammalian mitoribosomes and prokaryotic ribosomes is that the latter contain a 5S rRNA. Among different species, the proteins comprising the mitoribosome differ greatly in sequence, and sometimes in biochemical properties, which prevents easy recognition by sequence homology. This gene encodes a 28S subunit protein that does not seem to have a counterpart in prokaryotic and fungal-mitochondrial ribosomes. This gene lies telomeric of and is transcribed in the opposite direction from the forkhead box L2 gene. A pseudogene corresponding to this gene is found on chromosome Xq.
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The MGC Project Team; Genome Res. 14:2121-2127(2004).
