NEMO is an essential component of the IkappaB kinase complex. Others have shown that expression of mouse NEMO can complement the lack of responsiveness to NF-kappaB stimuli in two NEMO-deficient cell lines. Here we report the isolation of a full-length human NEMO cDNA. Virtual translation of human NEMO cDNA predicts a 48-kD coiled-coil protein which shares 87.9% identity and 90.5% similarity with the mouse homolog. By sequence alignment, we mapped the human NEMO gene to chromosome Xq28. We note that the NEMO and the G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) loci are arranged in a head-to-head orientation separated by no more than 800 bp. This map location is further supported by the sequence of an alternatively spliced variant of human NEMO mRNA. Thus, human NEMO is an X-linked gene closely adjacent to the G6PD locus.