We have constructed a 2.0 centiMorgan (cM) resolution genetic linkage map for chromosome 15q that contains 55 polymorphic satellites and 3 RFLPs that have placed on the map with odds for order of at least 1,000:1. Genotypes from 67 polymorphic loci (64 polymorphic microsatellites) were used to construct the map. Nine genes are included in the 1,000:1 map and 37 markers have heterozygosities of at least 70%. The sex-equal map length is 128 cM and the largest genetic interval is 11 cM (15.5 cM on the female map). The female and male map lengths are 150 cM and 106 cM, respectively. The map was constructed with 'MultiMap' and is based on the CEPH reference pedigrees and includes over 12,000 new genotypes. A sub-set of 12 markers spanning the length of the linkage map were genotyped in a somatic cell hybrid panel with breakpoints that divided 15q into five segments. Cytogenetic placement agreed with the linkage positions for each of the microsatellites tested with the exception of one (ACTC) which failed to give consistent results. Ten spontaneous new mutations were identified from a subset of 42 polymorphic microsatellites (out of a total of 20,420 transmissions), giving an apparent observed spontaneous mutation rate of 5 x 10(-4) per locus. An integrated map of chromosome 15q was also constructed with the microsatellite markers described here and previously genotyped RFLP-based markers. The sex average map spans 144.7 cM with an average distance between unique map locations of 3.5 cM and a maximum intermarker distance of 11.5 cM. These genetic linkage maps can be considered baseline maps for 15q which will be useful for physical mapping and the localization of disease genes and other genes of interest.