BLAST analysis using PmaSL1 and PmaSL2 hit some cDNA or genomic DNA sequences apparently coding for proteins (e.g. EH076923, EH059894, EH059894, EH059894). In addition, over 100 genomic sequences were retrieved from the genome data that contained recognizable PmaSL1 (.60, e.g. AAXJ01000048, AAXJ01000335, AAXJ01000111, AAXJ0100359, AAXJ01004662, AAXJ01000077) and PmaSL2 (.40, e.g. AAXJ01000111, AAXJ01000162, AAXJ01000192, AAXJ01000237, AAXJ01000370) but no recognizable intron downstream. Most of these SL sequences started with T, and were arrayed in tandem repeats, and their downstream regions were variable. To investigate whether those SL RNA-like genomic sequences were also expressed, we designed primers (Table 1 ) containing a partial SL and downstream nucleotides or the downstream sequences alone and applied them to 39 RACE and RNA blotting analyses. Neither of the approaches yielded clear products, indicating that these SL-like sequences are not functional SL RNA genes.