Adult periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease whose etiology is not well defined. Recent studies have shown that vitamin D receptor gene has been a candidate for the susceptibility of adult periodontitis. The purpose of this study is to investigate the frequency of Taq I restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in the vitamin D receptor gene in nan periodontically healthy controls and 28 adult periodontitis patients. Taq I RFLP in the vitamin D receptor gene was detected by PCR amplification, followed by restriction enzyme digestion and 2％ agarose gel electrophoresis. There was no significant difference in the distribution of Taq I RFLP between healthy controls and adult periodontitis group (P > 0.05). Thus, Taq I RFLP in the vitamin D receptor gene may not confer the susceptibility to adult periodontitis in Korean population. However, t allele distributions of this RFLP showed various frequencies among ethnic groups studied. Further studies in other ethnic groups will be required.