Membrane topography of the rat ovarian lutropin receptor was studied by two different approaches. Ovarian membrane preparation, labelled with 125I-labelled human choriogonadotropin in vivo, was subjected to extensive chymotryptic digestion. The soluble and membrane-bound radioactive complexes were cross-linked with glutaraldehyde, and analysed by SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis and autoradiography. Chymotrypsin solubilized 70-75% of the radioactivity as Mr-96,000, Mr-74,000 and Mr-61,000 complexes, and decreased the size of the membrane-bound 125I-labelled human choriogonadotropin-receptor complex from Mr 130,000 to Mr 110,000. The Mr-110,000 complex was not observed when 0.1% Triton X-100 was present in the proteolytic digestion. Enrichment of inside-out-oriented plasma-membrane vesicles by concanavalin A affinity chromatography increased by 70% the fraction of radioactivity that remained in the membrane fraction after chymotrypsin treatment. Chymotrypsin also diminished the size of the membrane-bound unoccupied receptor from Mr 90,000 to Mr 70,000, as detected by ligand (125I-labelled human choriogonadotropin) blotting. These results suggest that the lutropin receptor is a transmembrane protein with a cytoplasmic domain of Mr 20,000 that is sensitive to proteolytic digestion in the inside-out-oriented plasma-membrane vesicles.