The Drosophila nuclear protein Bx42 is present in a set of transcriptionally active puffs on polytene chromosomes. cDNA clones coding for this protein were isolated from a lambda-gt11 expression library. The two Bx42 transcripts are ubiquitously expressed and are already detectable in early stages of development. The corresponding genomic region, in 8C7-8, was isolated and sequenced. Both transcripts direct the production of the same basic, highly charged 547 amino acid protein with a calculated 61.1 kDa molecular weight.