Abstract:The 3.0 kb Bgl Ⅱ + Xba Ⅰ restriction fragment of millet (Setaria italica) chloroplast genome containing rbcL gene had been cloned into pBluescript SK (一) vector, then the restriction map and the 1990 bp complete nucleotide sequence was determined. The 1431 bp coding region of the gene consists of 476 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular weight of 52679 D. The 389 bp 5′ upstream region has the putative -10 box, -35 box and SD sequence, similar to that of procaryotes. The 170 bp 3′ downstream region contains three stem-loop structures. Comparison of the rbcL gene sequences between C4 plants and several C3 plants reveals no difference in the coding region, promoter and 3‘ downstream region. It might be concluded that the rbcL gene sequence has no relation with its cell-specific expression.