Basic Information

Symbol
RPL8
RNA class
mRNA
Alias
Ribosomal Protein L8 UL2 L8 Large Ribosomal Subunit Protein UL2 60S Ribosomal Protein L8
Location (GRCh38)
8:144789765-144792587
UCSC Genome Browser Search in Marker Scope
Forensic tag(s)
Individual identification Time since deposition estimation Postmortem interval inference
External database
HGNC NCBI Ensembl OMIM UniProt GTEx

MANE select

Transcript ID
NM_001317782.2
Sequence length
1070.0 nt
GC content
0.6355

Transcripts

ID Sequence Length GC content
NM_000973.5 NCBI
CUCUUUCGGCCGCGCUGGUGAACAGGACCCGUCGCCAUGGGCCGUGUGA… 845 nt 0.6047
NM_001317771.2 NCBI
CUCUUUCGGCCGCGCUGGUGAACAGGUAGGUCAUCCUUGCGGCCUUGCG… 945 nt 0.6127
NM_001317782.2 NCBI
CUCUUUCGGCCGCGCUGGUGAACAGGUAGGUCAUCCUUGCGGCCUUGCG… 1070 nt 0.6355
NM_033301.3 NCBI
CUCUUUCGGCCGCGCUGGUGAACAGGUAGGUCAUCCUUGCGGCCUUGCG… 966 nt 0.6180
Summary

Ribosomes, the organelles that catalyze protein synthesis, consist of a small 40S subunit and a large 60S subunit. Together these subunits are composed of 4 RNA species and approximately 80 structurally distinct proteins. This gene encodes a ribosomal protein that is a component of the 60S subunit. The protein belongs to the L2P family of ribosomal proteins. It is located in the cytoplasm. In rat, the protein associates with the 5.8S rRNA, very likely participates in the binding of aminoacyl-tRNA, and is a constituent of the elongation factor 2-binding site at the ribosomal subunit interface. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding the same protein exist. As is typical for genes encoding ribosomal proteins, there are multiple processed pseudogenes of this gene dispersed through the genome. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

Forensic Context

A study in humans using microarrays on blood leukocytes from monozygotic twins and unrelated individuals found that housekeeping genes, including the RPL8, were differentially expressed between twins and belonged to the least variable category, with these genes being nearly insensitive to random environmental variations but more susceptible to genetic differences between unrelated individuals [Sharma et al. DOI:10.1152/physiolgenomics.00228.2003]. In Sarcophaga dux, research using RT-qPCR identified the RPL8 as a differentially expressed gene whose expression levels fluctuated during the pupal stage, and its expression profile, along with other DEGs, was significantly influenced by pupal age and temperature, enabling the development of simulation equations for precise age estimation to improve minimum postmortem interval (PMImin) estimation [Zhang et al. DOI:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2020.102735]. A review further notes that the RPL8 is a differentially expressed gene identified in the intra-puparial period of *Sarcophaga dux* for age estimation [Mei et al. DOI:10.1016/J.Legalmed.2026.102801].