GH receptor (GHR) mRNA has been identified in peripheral (liver and muscle) and central (brain and hypothalamus) tissues of sex-linked dwarf (SLD) Leghorn chickens. Total RNA was extracted from the tissues of immature (1 week, 4 week), pubertal (16 week) and adult (> 24 weeks) SLD and K (the normally growing strain) Leghorn chickens. In both groups and all tissues, an mRNA moiety of 4.4 kb hybridized with cRNA probes derived from the rabbit hepatic GHR sequence. An additional low-abundance transcript of 2.8 kb was also identified in some tissues. An age-related increase in expression was observed in K and SLD hepatic GHR mRNA, suggesting normal regulation of SLD GHR gene transcription. Amplification of cDNA from K and SLD tissues in the presence of oligonucleotide primers coding for the intracellular or extracellular domains of the chicken GHR generated electrophoretically separable fragments of expected size. Restriction enzyme digestion of the products with EcoRI, BstNI, HaeIII, NcoI or BamHI produced smaller moieties of expected sizes in both strains. These results demonstrate that, in contrast to broiler SLDs, a GHR gene deletion is not responsible for the GHR dysfunction in Leghorn SLDs. Although the actual defect in GHR gene expression in SLD Leghorns remains to be identified, this study demonstrates that sex-linked dwarfism, like Laron dwarfism, is due to a heterogeneity of lesions.