Dihydroorotase (DHOase) catalyzes the third step in eukaryotic de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis. In mammalian cells, this enzyme activity is carried by a large chimeric protein, CAD, that also catalyzes the first two steps in the pathway: glutamine-dependent carbamyl phosphate synthetase (CPSase) and aspartate transcarbamylase (ATCase). Controlled elastase cleavage of CAD released a 44,000 +/- 2,000-dalton proteolytic fragment which catalyzed only the dihydroorotase reaction. We have devised a rapid and simple method for the isolation of the DHO domain from elastase digests. The domain, which was obtained in 36% yield, was found to be homogeneous by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing. The domain was also characterized by amino acid analysis and analytical high pressure liquid chromatography peptide mapping. The amino terminus of both the DHO domain and intact CAD was blocked suggesting that this domain is located at the extreme amino terminus of the CAD polypeptide, a result consistent with the suspected juxtaposition of domains as DHO-CPS-ATC. The isoelectric point of the DHO domain was 5.1, while that of the ATC domain was 9.4, so that the ends of the CAD polypeptide are oppositely charged at physiological pH. Immunoblotting with DHO domain-specific antibodies showed that a 47-kDa species was generated in the early stages of controlled proteolysis of CAD. Thus there are two elastase cleavage sites within a 3-kDa connecting region that links the DHO and CPS domains. The domain was shown by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and by isolating a 65Zn-containing DHO domain from mammalian cells grown in the presence of the radionuclide to contain 1 g eq of tightly bound zinc in each polypeptide chain. Zinc was not found in any other CAD domain. Chelating agents inhibit dihydroorotase activity of the isolated domain supporting the conclusion, based on studies of intact CAD by others, that zinc participates in catalysis. At moderate protein concentrations the DHO domain was a 88,000 dimer with a Stokes radius of 37.6 A, a S20,w = 5.1 X 10(-13) s, a diffusion coefficient of 3.17 X 10(-7) cm2 s-1, and a frictional ratio of 1.26. On dilution the dimer dissociated and was in rapid concentration-dependent equilibrium with a 43,500 monomer. The hydrodynamic parameters of the monomer have also been estimated (Stokes radius of 29.8 A, D20,w = 4.11 X 10(-7) cm2 s-1, and f/f0 1.21).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)