The tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha and beta gene pair has been linked in the human major histocompatibility complex to HLA-B, HLA-C, and, tentatively, HLA-E and HLA-A on one side and to the class III complement/steroid 21-hydroxylase gene cluster on the other by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The TNF genes are located 200 kilobases (kb) centromeric of HLA-B and about 350 kb telomeric of the class III cluster. Together with previous data on the linkage and structures of the class II and class III regions, a restriction map of the entire human major histocompatibility complex of about 3500 kb has been prepared.