The eukaryotic genome contains a large family of ATPases in which each member has at least one highly conserved domain of approximately 200 amino acids with an ATP binding motif (the "AAA" domain). AAA ATPases play diverse roles in the cell and are of considerable interest to researchers investigating a number of different phenomena, including control of the cell cycle. We have characterized the mouse P26s4 AAA ATPase gene that encodes a subunit of the 26S protease, a multimeric complex that is responsible for the ubiquitin- and ATP-dependent degradation of specific proteins. The normal functioning of eukaryotic cells depends on this pathway to remove regulatory proteins such as cyclins or signal transduction molecules from the intracellular environment, with the appropriate timing to allow normal cell division and development. We have isolated mouse P26s4 cDNAs and mapped the P26s4 gene to chromosome 12. We have analyzed the intron-exon structure of the P26s4 genomic locus and have determined that the gene contains at least 10 introns, the first of which separates the start methionine from the rest of the coding sequence.