Abstract
Seven families of Igh‐V genes have been defined by Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA from eighteen inbred strains of mice. Each of twenty‐four cloned Vh genes hybridized to one of seven nonoverlapping sets of Eco RI restriction fragments. These families contain from 2 to ∼40 hybridizing fragments. From these data we estimate that the mouse Igh‐V locus consists of one hundred Vh genes. Genes within a Vh family share >80% sequence homology while the sequence homology between families is generally <70%. There is extensive restriction fragment length polymorphism among the strains analyzed allowing the assignment of complete (Igh‐V + Igh‐C) Igh haplotypes for eighteen inbred mouse strains.