Cytoplasmic ribosomes, organelles that catalyze protein synthesis, consist of a small 40S subunit and a large 60S subunit. Together these subunits are composed of 4 RNA species and approximately 80 structurally distinct proteins. This gene encodes a ribosomal protein that is a component of the 60S subunit. The protein belongs to the L7AE family of ribosomal proteins. It can interact with a subclass of nuclear hormone receptors, including thyroid hormone receptor, and inhibit their ability to transactivate by preventing their binding to their DNA response elements. This gene is included in the surfeit gene cluster, a group of very tightly linked genes that do not share sequence similarity. It is co-transcribed with the U24, U36a, U36b, and U36c small nucleolar RNA genes, which are located in its second, fifth, fourth, and sixth introns, respectively. This gene rearranges with the trk proto-oncogene to form the chimeric oncogene trk-2h, which encodes an oncoprotein consisting of the N terminus of ribosomal protein L7a fused to the receptor tyrosine kinase domain of trk. As is typical for genes encoding ribosomal proteins, there are multiple processed pseudogenes of this gene dispersed through the genome.