A CBA/J-strain mouse serum amyloid P component (SAP) genomic clone was isolated and analysed. The clone contains the entire SAP gene and specifies a primary transcript of 1065 nucleotide residues. This comprises a first exon of 206 nucleotide residues containing the mRNA 5'-untranslated region and sequence encoding the pre-SAP leader peptide and the first two amino acid residues of mature SAP separated by a single 110-base intron from a 749-nucleotide-residue second exon containing sequence encoding the bulk of the mature SAP and specifying the mRNA 3'-untranslated region. The overall organization is similar to that of the human SAP gene, and the coding region and intron sequences are highly conserved. The SAP RNA cap site was defined by primer extension analysis of polyadenylated acute-phase liver RNA. The 5'-region of the mouse SAP gene contains modified CAAT and TATA promoter elements preceded by a putative hepatocyte-nuclear-factor-1-recognition site; these structures are in a region that is highly homologous to the corresponding region of the human SAP gene. Comparisons of the mouse SAP gene structure and derived amino acid sequence with those of other mammalian pentraxins were made.