The properties of flexor digitorum longus (FDL) muscles and of individual motor units were studied in cats 30-50 wk after self-reinnervation by FDL motoneurons (FDL----FDL) or cross-reinnervation by soleus (SOL) motoneurons (SOL----FDL). Individual motor units were functionally isolated by intracellular recording and stimulation of identified SOL alpha-motoneurons. Glycogen-depletion methods permitted histochemical study of muscle fibers belonging to physiologically characterized muscle units. The observations were compared with data from normal cat FDL muscles and motor units (27). Intentionally self-reinnervated FDL muscles (FDL----FDL; n = 5) were normal in size and wet weight. FDL----FDL motor units could be classified into the same physiological categories found in normal FDL [types: fast contracting, fatigable (FF), fast contracting, fatigue resistant (FR), and slow (S); n = 24], with approximately the same proportions as normal. The histochemical muscle fiber types associated with these categories were also qualitatively normal although there was evidence of marked distortion of the normal histochemical mosaic. These data confirm other studies of self-reinnervation and suggest that self-reinnervation can produce complete interconversion of muscle fiber types. Cross-reinnervation of FDL muscle by SOL motoneurons (SOL----FDL; n = 12) produced muscles that were smaller (about half the normal wet weight) and more red than normal. SOL----FDL muscle contracted more slowly than normal or FDL----FDL muscles and had much higher proportions of histochemical type I muscle fibers. In those SOL----FDL muscles, in which little or no unwanted self-reinnervation could be demonstrated, greater than 95% of the muscle fibers were type I. Forty-one individual motor units in SOL----FDL muscles were isolated by intracellular penetration in functionally identified SOL alpha-motoneurons. Their muscle units were all type S by physiological criteria (absence of "sag" in unfused tetani and marked resistance to fatigue). SOL----FDL muscle units had contraction times and fatigue properties that were essentially identical to those of type S units in the normal FDL. All of the seven units, successfully studied by glycogen depletion, exhibited histochemical type I fibers. SOL motoneurons that innervated FDL muscle units had slightly shorter afterhyperpolarization durations than normal SOL cells, but axonal conduction velocities were normal.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)