To approach the problem of the RNA-protein and protein-protein non-covalent interactions in mammalian ribosomes, the behaviour of the ribosomal proteins of L cells has been studied under various conditions. Firstly, the electrophoretic patterns of the ribosomal proteins extracted from KCI-washed subunits dissociated by EDTA or puromycin have been compared. All the ribosomal proteins of the EDTA-derived subunits are found on the puromycin-derived subunits with the exception of two (S20, S22) not observed when puromycin is used to dissociate the subunits. Three polypeptides of the puromycin-derived subunit, SPO, LP1, LP3, are stripped by the sole removal of Mg2+ when EDTA is used. Other additional polypeptides are found on the KC1-washed puromycin-derived subunits. Secondly, the dissociating effect of 0.5 M KCI on the proteins of the subunits dissociated by EDTA or puromycin has been studied. Although the EDTA-derived subunits appear much more sensitive to KC1, nevertheless 0.5 M KCI also releases ribosomal proteins from the puromycin-derived subunits. Other polypeptides (core proteins) are not susceptible to KCl split off. Thirdly, some ribosomal proteins are able to transfer from one type of subunit to the other; these proteins have been classified into three groups. Although the deprivation of Mg2+ enhances this phenomenon, seven pairs of putative transferable proteins are observed in subunits dissociated both by EDTA and puromycin. Lastly, a comparative study has been made between the proteins split off by KCI, the core proteins and the transferable proteins with the ribosomal polypeptides labelled in the absence of rRNA synthesis. A correlation has been observed between the proteins split off by KCI, the transferable proteins and the labelled proteins; however, none of the core proteins are transferable and the major part of them remain unlabelled. This study suggests that the transfer, splitting off and labelling of proteins are properties related to the topological location of the proteins in the ribosomal structure.The cytoplasmic ribosomes contain more than 70 different polypeptides [I -51. Studies of the conformation of such an RNA-protein assembly, of the location of the ribosomal polypeptides and of their function in protein synthesis, are made difficult due to the complexity of these ribonucleoprotein structures. One approach to this problem has been to study the behaviour of the ribosomal proteins under various ionic and labelling conditions. Along this line some of the eukaryotic ribosomal proteins have been described either as KCI-split-off proteins [6 -81, core proteins [9,10], proteins apparently transferable from one subunit to the other [I1 -141 or as proteins which are labelled on the cytoplasmic ribosomes when the nucleolar synthesis of the ribosomes has been suppressed [5,. As yet, no direct comparison between the ribosomal proteins belonging to these four groups has been made. Here, we report on such a comparative study, in which two methods for dissociating ribosomes have been used concomi...