The intronless mouse gene for the tissue specific splicing protein SmN is a processed pseudogene containing a stop codon after thirty-one amino acids

The SmN protein is a component of small ribonucleoprotein particles which is closely related to the ubiquitously expressed splicing proteins SmB and B' but is expressed in only a small number of cells and tissues. We have isolated a mouse SmN-related sequence which lacks introns and contains multiple changes from the SmN cDNA sequence including a stop codon after thirty-one amino acids which would prevent it encoding functional SmN protein. This indicates that this intronless gene is a processed pseudogene and that the functional gene has yet to be isolated. In agreement with this southern blotting of mouse DNA with SmN probes reveals bands, additional to those derived from the pseudogene, which are characteristic of an intron-containing SmN gene. The relationship of the pseudogene to the functional SmN gene and to an intronless SmN-related sequence in the rat genome is discussed.