The human lipoprotein lipase gene was cloned and characterized. It is composed of 10 exons spanning approximately equal to 30 kilobases. The first exon encodes the 5'-untranslated region, the signal peptide plus the first two amino acids of the mature protein. The next eight exons encode the remaining 446 amino acids, and the tenth exon encodes the long 3'-untranslated region of 1948 nucleotides. The lipoprotein lipase transcription start site and the sequence of the 5'-flanking region were also determined. We compared the organization of genes for lipoprotein lipase, hepatic lipase, pancreatic lipase, and Drosophila yolk protein 1, which are members of a family of related genes. A model for the evolution of the lipase gene family is presented that involves multiple rounds of gene duplication plus exon-shuffling and intron-loss events.