The cytochrome P-450 forms involved in debrisoquine 4-hydroxylation (P-450DB), phenacetin O-deethylation (P-450PA), S-mephenytoin 4-hydroxylation (P-450MP), and nifedipine 1,4-oxidation (P-450NF) have been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity from human liver microsomes. All of these reactions show in vivo polymorphism in humans. Evidence for the roles of the purified proteins in these processes comes from in vitro reconstitution and immunoinhibition studies. The rat orthologs of these enzymes are as follows--P-450DB: P-450UT-H; P-450PA: P-450ISF-G; P-450MP: P-450UT-I; P-450NF: P-450PCN-E. Only in the case of P-450UT-H is the primary rat ortholog the same cytochrome P-450 which catalyses the catalytic reaction under consideration. Reconstitution and immunochemical studies establish that the following reactions are catalysed by the individual P-450s--P-450DB: debrisoquine 4-hydroxylation, sparteine delta 5-oxidation, bufuralol 1'-hydroxylation, encainide O-demethylation, and propanolol 4-hydroxylation; P-450PA: phenacetin O-deethylation; P-450MP: S-mephenytoin 4-hydroxylation and tolbutamide methyl hydroxylation; P-450NF: oxidation of nifedipine and 16 other substituted dihydropyridines, estradiol 2- and 4-hydroxylation, aldrin epoxidation, benzphetamine N-demethylation and 6 beta-hydroxylation of testosterone, androstenedione and cortisol. A cDNA clone has been isolated that corresponds to rat P-450UT-H, as shown by a number of criteria. Studies with this probe establish that the sex and strain variation in debrisoquine 4-hydroxylase and related activities is related to differences in the levels of a 2.0 kb length mRNA present.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)