Differential screening of a human fetal kidney cDNA library resulted in the isolation of D69, eventually renamed HumRPL27, which was expressed at higher levels in fetal kidney than in adult kidney. The 476 bp cDNA insert from HumRPL27 contains an open reading frame of 135 amino acids displaying 100% identity to rat RPL27 and chicken RPL27 predicted protein sequences although 64 and 38 silent base pairs changes respectively are found at the DNA level. In Northern blots, a 1.0 kb HumRPL27 mRNA transcript is expressed abundantly in all fetal tissues examined and at lower abundance in adult tissues. Southern analysis of HumRPL27 suggests the presence of multiple copies of the gene in human, rat, mouse and hamster DNA.