A cloned cDNA segment of 442 bp which contains the region coding the N-terminal sequence of rat DNA polymerase beta polypeptide was used as a probe in Southern hybridization analysis to identify the gene for this enzyme. This probe hybridized with DNA from mouse and human in addition to rat DNA, and the BamHI fragment containing DNA polymerase beta gene sequence was unique in size in each species: 15.8 kb for rat DNA, 8.7 kb for mouse DNA and 10.1 kb for human DNA. DNA extracted from a panel of 12 independent human-mouse somatic cell hybrids was analyzed by Southern blot hybridization with the cloned cDNA probe. The results indicate that the gene for the human DNA polymerase beta sequence (POLB) is located on chromosome 8.