Ferrochelatase, the enzyme that catalyzes the terminal step in the heme biosynthetic pathway, is the site of the defect in the human inherited disease erythropoietic protoporphyria. Molecular genetic studies have shown that the majority of erythropoietic protoporphyria cases are transmitted in dominant fashion and that mutations underlying erythropoietic protoporphyria are heterogeneous. We performed haplotype analysis of American families that shared recurrent ferrochelatase gene mutations yet had forbearers from several European countries. This was to gain insight into whether these mutations represent mutational hotspots at the ferrochelatase gene, or propagation of ancestral alleles bearing the mutations. Two recurrent mutations were found to occur on distinctive chromosome 18 haplotypes, consistent with being hotspot mutations. On the other hand, we found three sets of two unrelated families that shared the same haplotypes bearing these mutations, which could reflect geographic dispersion of ancestral mutant alleles. In addition, we report novel mutations associated with erythropoietic protoporphyria: g(+ 1)-->t transversion of the exon 4 donor site, g(+ 1)-->a transition of the exon 6 donor site, and t(+ 2)-->a substitution at the exon 9 donor site; these mutations are predicted to cause splicing defects of the associated exons. We also identified a g(+ 5)-->a transition of the exon 1 donor site in four unrelated families with erythropoietic protoporphyria, and a G(- 1)-->A substitution at the exon 9 donor site in an additional family. The probability that these sequence changes are normal polymorphisms was virtually excluded (p < 0.0001) by their absence in 120 ferrochelatase alleles from 30 normal subjects and 30 individuals with manifested erythropoietic protoporphyria with or without a known mutation.