The organization of mouse immunoglobulin heavy chain genes has been investigated by hybridization with cloned mu and alpha cDNA probes. Restriction endonuclease fragments bearing mu and alpha constant region genes and two types of variable region (VH) genes were compared in BALB/c embryos, liver and nine plasmacytomas synthesizing IgM, IgA, IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b and IgG3. Embryo DNA was found to contain a single copy of the C mu gene per haploid genome. In contrast, one VH probe (HPC 76) detected at least six related VH genes, while the other (S107) detected a separate set of at least four genes, indicating that the germline contains distinct sets of multiple related VH genes. Most VH genes within the two subsets remained in germline context in different plasmacytomas, providing no evidence for somatic reassortment of VH genes. One plasmacytoma was devoid of specific VH genes, including some related to the expressed VH sequence. This may mean that the translocation event creating an active heavy chain gene involves deletion of the DNA between the expressed VH and CH sequences. The context of C mu sequences in DNA from a plasmacytoma secreting IgM differed from that in embryo DNA, as did C alpha sequences in two IgA- and several IgG-secreting plasmacytomas. Unlike heavy chain expression, rearrangement was not confined to one allele and often took different forms within a single cell line, presumably varying on different homologous chromosomes. Each rearrangement, whether resulting in an active C gene or not, appeared to change sequences upstream but not downstream from the CH gene. Significantly, the eight IgG and IgA plasmacytomas examined had undergone deletions of at least half and often all C mu sequences while retaining the embryo level of C alpha sequences. Hence a deletion mechanism may be responsible for the switch in expression from one CH gene to another which occurs during differentiation of a lymphocyte clone.