A molecular analysis of HLA class II genes was undertaken in order to characterize the previously reported association between HLA-DR2 and glomerulonephritis caused by antibodies to glomerular basement membrane (Goodpasture's disease). Genomic DNA was prepared from 53 patients with Goodpasture's disease and analysed by: (i) Southern blotting using cDNA probes to DRB, DQA and DQB genes, after digestion with Taql endonuclease; (ii) allele-specific oligonucleotide probing of specifically amplified DNA; and (iii) nucleotide sequencing of relevant alleles. The patients had a greatly increased frequency of DRw15 (a subspecificity of DR2) which was present in 75.5% of patients and 31 % of controls (p< 0.0001). The frequency of DR4 was also increased, especially in patients without DRw15. Overall, 90.5% of the patients had either DRw15 or DR4. In contrast, the frequency of DR1 was significantly reduced (patients 5.6%, controls 20.7%, p<0.01). Differences in the frequencies of DQA and DQB alleles could all be explained by linkage disequilibrium. Nucleotide sequences of relevant alleles were identical to those previously published. Comparison of derived amino acid sequences of expressed DRrβ chains showed that the DRrβ chains of DRw15 and DR4 shared a six-amino-acid motif from positions 26–31, that included four polymorphic amino acids none of which are shared with DR1. A sequence-specific oligonucleotide detected this amino-acid motif in 45/49 (91.8%) patients tested. Thus, this particular motif, which lies on the floor of the antigen binding groove, has a stronger association with Goodpasture's disease than any individual allele, and may be of pathogenic significance.