Clones encoding the proteolipid subunit 9 of the mitochondrial ATPase complex have been isolated from a lambda gt10 library of human liver cDNA sequences, using a probe of Neurospora crassa cDNA encoding subunit 9. From nucleotide sequence analysis it is concluded that the amino acid sequence of mature human subunit 9 is identical to that of its bovine counterpart. By comparing the sequence of two cDNA clones (denoted human 1 and 2) to those of two bovine cDNA clones (denoted P1 and P2) recently described by Gay and Walker (EMBO J. 4, 3519-3524, 1985) it is evident that there are close sequence relationships between human 1 and bovine P1, and between human 2 and bovine P2, although both human clones are truncated at their 5'-ends. Thus, as in bovine cells there appears to be at least two human genes encoding subunit 9.