Northern blot analysis of glutathione S-transferase (GST) Yb1 mRNA in different tissues of male and female rats revealed that its tissue-specific transcription patterns were highly sex hormone related. Although the GST Yb1 mRNA could be detected in most of the tissues examined at various levels, the highest abundance was observed in the ventral prostate, uterus and liver, which were the main target tissue for androgen, estrogen and glucocorticoid respectively. The effect of androgen on the transcription of GST Yb1 was also tissue-specific. Since androgen withdrawal by castration caused the up-regulation of GST Yb1 mRNA in the ventral prostate but down-regulation in the liver and no effect in the brain, evaluation of this system for studying the regulation mechanisms of gene expression by which androgen exerts its differential effects has been discussed.