Substitutions at serine-16 do not affect the binding affinity of TFIIIA for either 5S rRNA gene. Wild-type TFIIIA or mutant TFIIIA with serine-16 replaced with alanine (S16A) or glutamic acid (S16E) was used in DNase I footprinting assays with the oocyte- or somatic-type 5S rRNA gene. Each sample contained 2 nM end-labeled, linearized plasmid and 0, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, or 100 nM protein (oocyte gene) or 0, 10, 20, 30, or 40 nM protein (somatic gene).