We have cloned the rat angiotensin II receptor type 2 (AT2) gene, whose physiological function remains unclear. Sequence analysis indicated that exons 1 and 2 exist in the 5'-untranslated region and the initiation codon ATG is located in exon 3. The 1.6-kb genomic fragment at positions -1567 to +26 relative to the putative transcription start site was found to contain a functional promoter region using transient chloramphenicol acetyltransferase assay. This is the first report demonstrating the nucleotide sequence of the promoter region of this gene.