Double-stranded cDNA was synthesized from a mouse liver mRNA fraction enriched for metallothionein mRNA activity, ligated to restriction site linkers, inserted into pBR322, and used to transform Escherichia coli chi 1776. The sequence of the largest plasmid containing DNA that hybridized to metallothionein mRNA was determined and shown to contain a 380-base-pair insert that includes the entire coding region and 3' untranslated region of metallothionein-I. The metallothionein-I insert was nick-translated and used to screen both a mouse myeloma and a mouse embryo DNA library in bacteriophage lambda. A metallothionein-I genomic clone containing 13-15 kilobase pairs of mouse DNA was isolated from each library. Both contain a 3.8-kilobase-pair EcoRI fragment that hybridizes to the metallothionein-I probe. The location, size, and orientation of the metallothionein-I gene within the 3.8-kilobase-pair fragment were determined by heteroduplex and restriction mapping. The gene spans 1.1 kilobase pairs and contains at least two introns.