Recent advances in the genetics of hypertension include studies on localizations of many loci involved in blood pressure regulation in the rat, elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying monogenetic forms of hypertension, and studies of candidate genes in primary hypertension. Evidence that the angiotensinogen gene is involved in primary hypertension has been found by linkage in affected sibling pairs, and by the demonstration of increased risk of disease associated with DNA variants of the gene. Similar evidence of linkage and association has been found in preeclampsia, which suggests that the two diseases share at least one common factor of genetic susceptibility.