Expression of a rat brain creatine kinase (CKB)/beta-galactosidase fusion protein in Escherichia coli has allowed isolation of a rat CKB cDNA clone by direct antibody screening of a rat brain gamma gt11 expression library. This clone is 1416 bp long and includes 202 bp of 3'-untranslated region and 29 bp of 5'-untranslated region. The coding sequence of this clone has enabled us to deduce the complete amino acid (aa) sequence of rat CKB protein.