The amino acid sequence of rat ribosomal protein L26 was deduced from the sequence of nucleotides in a recombinant cDNA and confirmed from the NH2-terminal amino acid sequence of the protein. Rat L26 contains 145 amino acids and has a molecular mass of 17,266 Da. Hybridization of the cDNA to digests of nuclear DNA suggests that there are 8-16 copies of the L26 gene. The mRNA for the protein is about 650 nucleotides in length. Protein L26 has a sequence of 9 residues that may be repeated in three places.