Bovine enterokinase was purified from duodenal mucosa. The purification included an initial extraction with 2% deoxycholate, ammonium sulfate fractionations, DEAE-cellulose chromatography, and affinity chromatography on basic pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (Kunitz) (PTI)-Sepharose. The purified enzyme contained 35% carbohydrate; it had a molecular weight of 150,000, with a heavy (115,000) and light (35,000) chain connected by one or more disulfide bonds. Enterokinase hydrolyzed lysine and arginine substrates and slowly reacted with the trypsin active site titrant 4-methylumbelliferyl-p-guanidinobenzoate. The enzyme activated bovine trypsinogen with kinetic parameters similar to those of other preparations of enterokinase. Bovine enterokinase was inhibited by Kunitz pancreatic trypsin inhibitor with a Kassoc of 2 X 10(8) M-1 and only weakly by other proteinase inhibitors. The amino acid composition differed from bovine enterokinase isolated from duodenal contents (Anderson, L.E., Walsh, K.A., and Neurath, H. (1977) Biochemistry 16, 3354-3360). The mucosal enzyme and the duodenal contents enzymes also differed in the size of the heavy and light chains. The mucosal enterokinase more closely resembled the properties of porcine enterokinase (Baratti, J., Maroux, S., Louvard, D., and Desnuelle, P. (1973) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 315, 147-161). The amino acid composition and size of the light chain were also similar to bovine trypsin.