RNA has many diverse functions in living organisms, from serving as genome for many viruses, to regulating DNA replication, transcription, translation and other metabolic processes. Some RNA, like protein, has been shown to have catalytic activity. The great proportion of the mass of RNA in living cells, in the form of ribosomal RNA (rRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA), constitutes the machinery of protein synthesis, the remainder (approximately 2%) consists of many heterogeneous RNA species of relatively small size, loosely termed "small RNAs", the functions of many of which are completely unknown. In an attempt to understand some of these functions, three hitherto undescribed small RNAs of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae were identified and their genes were cloned. These three small RNAs, which lack polyadenylation at their 3' ends, appear to represent the three most abundant RNA species in this organism after rRNA and tRNA. The most abundant of the three was found to be mainly cytoplasmic and was therefore called "small cytoplasmic RNA 1" (scR1). The other two RNAs, named snR17 and snR30, were found to be enriched in nuclear fractions and to possess trimethyl guanosine cap structures at their 5 ends, identifying them as belonging to the ubiquitous class of "U" small nuclear RNAs (U snRNAs), of which several are required for the endonucleolytic cleavage and splicing reactions in the maturation pathways of nuclear precursor mRNAs (pre-mRNA). Whereas scR1 and snR30 are both encoded by single genes, snR17 is the only yeast small RNA found so far to be encoded by two genes. SnR17 was found to be essential: haploid yeast strains lacking intact copies of one or other of the genes appeared to grow normally, but strains lacking both genes were inviable. The nucleotide sequences of the snR17 genes were determined, and the primary and predicted secondary structures of the RNA, 328 nucleotides in length, were found to show significant similarities to those of U3 snRNA, an abundant U snRNA, the function of which is not known. SnR17 belongs to a family of S. cerevisiae snRNAs which, unlike those involved in pre-mRNA splicing, are located in the nucleolus hydrogen-bonded to pre-rRNA, and are associated with antigenic protein that is recognized by human antibodies specific for a 36 kD polypeptide of the U3 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (U3 snRNP) in mammals. U3 snRNA is also nucleolar and associated with pre-rRNA. Given their structural similarities, snR17 and U3 snRNA are presumably homologous. Yeast snRNAs associated with the anti-(U3)RNP antigen share with U3 snRNAs a conserved nucleotide sequence element. This sequence element alone, however, when injected into Xenopus oocytes, was not sufficient to direct binding of the antigen. The association of snRNAs with pre-rRNA suggests that they function in ribosomal biogenesis.