The complete nucleotide sequence of the extracellular glucoamylase gene STA1 from the yeast Saccharomyces diastaticus has been determined. A single open reading frame codes for a 778-amino-acid protein which contains 13 potential N-glycosylation sites. In the 5'- and 3'-flanking regions of the gene, there are striking sequence homologies to the corresponding regions of ADH1 for alcohol dehydrogenase and MAT alpha 2 for mating type control in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The putative precursor begins with a hydrophobic segment that presumably acts as a signal sequence for secretion. The presumptive signal sequence showed a significant homology to that of Bacillus subtilis alpha-amylase precursor. The next segment, of ca. 320 amino acids, contains a threonine-rich tract in which direct repeat sequences of 35 amino acids exist, and is bordered by a pair of basic amino acid residues (Lys-Lys) which may be a proteolytic processing signal. The carboxy-terminal half of the precursor is a presumptive glucoamylase which contains several peptide segments showing a high degree of homology with alpha-amylases from widely diverse organisms including a procaryote (B. subtilis) and eucaryotes (Aspergillus oryzae and mouse). Analysis of both the nucleotide sequence of the STA1 gene and the amino acid composition of the purified glucoamylase suggested that the putative precursor is processed to yield subunits H and Y of mature enzyme by both trypsin-like and chymotrypsin-like cleavages.