This question stemmed from the following observations: (i) with the combination of biochemical and genetical approaches, we have recently demonstrated that the ribosomal protein eL42 from eukaryotes is indispensable for the activity of the yeast 80S ribosomes (unpublished data); (ii) the human eL42 protein was previously shown to be overexpressed in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as well as in several human tumor cell-lines [31, 32]. This evidence concerns the gene RPL36A and hepatocellular carcinoma.