The human eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (hEDN) is a secretory effector protein from eosinophilic leukocytes that is a member of the ribonuclease A (RNase A) family of ribonucleases. EDN is a rapidly evolving protein, accumulating non-silent mutations at a rate exceeding those of most other functional coding sequences studied in primates. Although all primate EDNs retain the structural and functional residues known to be prerequisites for ribonuclease activity, we have shown previously that recombinant EDN derived from a New World monkey sequence ( Saguinus oedipus ) had significantly less catalytic activity than the human (hEDN) ortholog.In this work, we have prepared recombinant proteins from EDN from sequences derived from orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus, oEDN) and Old World monkey (Macaca fascicularis, mcEDN) genomic DNAs, and from a second New World monkey sequence (Aotus trivirgatus, omEDN) as well. The catalytic efficiencies [ k cat/ K m (M-1s-1)] determined for both oEDN and mcEDN were similar to that determined previously for hEDN, while omEDN displayed approximately 100-fold less catalytic activity. The relative ribonuclease activities of hEDN/omEDN chimeras pointed to a C-terminal segment as crucial to the enhanced catalytic activity hEDN, and substitution of Arg 132-Ile 133 of hEDN with the Thr-Thr pair at the analogous position in omEDN resulted in an approximately 10-fold reduction in hEDN's catalytic efficiency. However, the reverse substitution, Arg-Ile for Thr-Thr in omEDN, did not enhance the catalytic efficiency of this relatively inactive protein. These results indicate that the Arg and/or Ile residues adjacent to the C-terminus are necessary (but not sufficient) for enhanced ribonuclease activity among the primate EDNs, and will permit prediction of the relative ribonuclease activities based on differences in primary structure.