Ribosomal protein L17 is one of the proteins from the large ribosomal subunit. L17 belongs to a family of ribosomal proteins which, on the basis of sequence similarities, groups:

• Eubacterial L17.
• Yeast mitochondrial YmL8 (gene MRPL8).

Eubacterial L17 is a protein of 120 to 130 amino-acid residues. Yeast YmL8 is twice larger (238 residues), the sequence of its N-terminal half is colinear with that of eubacterial L17. As a signature pattern, we selected a conserved region in the N-terminal section.