A human galactoside-binding protein with an Mr of 31,000 was cloned from the human HT-1080 fibrosarcoma complementary DNA library. A partial complementary DNA clone containing the complete coding region was characterized and the deduced sequence encodes a polypeptide of 242 amino acids with the characteristics of a carbohydrate-binding protein. The gene coding for the human galactoside-binding protein was mapped to the chromosomal band 1p13. The deduced amino acid sequence of the human galactoside-binding protein revealed 95 residues at the amino terminus, homologous to the predicted amino acid sequence of the second exon of the human L-myc gene.