To date, twelve separate chromosome regions have been implicated in the development of human type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. The major disease locus, IDDM1 in the major histocompatibility complex(MHC) on chromosome 6p21, accounts for about 35% of the observed familial clustering and its contribution to disease susceptibility is likely to involve polymorphic residues of class II molecules in T-cell-mediated autoimmunity. IDDM2 is encoded by a minisatellite locus embedded in the 5' regulatory region of the insulin gene. Familial clustering of disease can be explained by the sharing of alleles of at least 10 loci. IDDM1 and IDDM2 interact epistatically. For a multifactorial disease, such as type 1 diabetes, important information concerning the pathways and mechanisms involved can be gained from examining such interactions between loci, using methods that simultaneously take account of the joint effects of the various underlying genetic components.