Inhibins A and B negatively regulate the production and secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone from the anterior pituitary, control ovarian follicle development and steroidogenesis, and act as tumor suppressors in the gonads. Inhibins regulate these reproductive events by forming high affinity complexes with betaglycan and activin or bone morphogenetic protein type II receptors. In this study, the binding site of inhibin A for betaglycan was characterized using inhibin A mutant proteins. An epitope for high affinity betaglycan binding was detected spanning the outer convex surface of the inhibin ␣-subunit. Inhibin A and inhibin B, members of the TGF 2 superfamily, are essential regulatory factors in mammalian reproduction. Their expression is critical for the regulation of fertility based on their dual inhibitory actions on follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) secretion by the pituitary (1, 2) and gametogenesis in the gonads (3, 4). It is recognized that inhibins regulate these reproductive events by inhibiting the stimulatory actions of the structurally related proteins, activins (5, 6). Inhibins are heterodimers of an 18-kDa ␣-subunit disulfide-linked to one of two 13-kDa -subunits (A and B), resulting in inhibin A or inhibin B, respectively. Each activin is composed of two -subunits; A-A (activin A), A-B (activin AB), and B-B (activin B). Although the inhibin A and inhibin B crystal structures have not been determined, based upon sequence identity it is expected that the -subunits would retain a similar conformation to that observed in the activin A dimer (7). Thus, within either -subunit, two pairs of anti-parallel -strands, forming a short and a long "finger," stretch outward from the cysteine knot core of the monomer. At the base of the fingers, each -subunit forms an ␣-helix, which together with the prehelix loop, generates the "wrist" region of the molecule (8).An interchain disulfide bond between Cys 80 of the A-subunit (Cys 79 of the B-subunit) and Cys 95 of the ␣-subunit covalently connects the two chains of the inhibin dimers. In humans, unlike other species, two molecular mass isoforms of mature inhibin A and B (31 and 34 kDa) have been identified (9). This molecular mass heterogeneity is due to the presence of two N-linked glycosylation sites at Asn 36 and Asn 70 of the ␣-subunit. Asn 36 is always glycosylated (producing 31-kDa inhibin A or B), whereas glycosylation of Asn 70 is differentially regulated (producing 34-kDa inhibin A or B) (10). The presence of a second carbohydrate moiety significantly reduces the biological activity of inhibin A (9), suggesting that human inhibins may be under more stringent control than inhibins from other species.Inhibins exert their biological effects by antagonizing the actions of TGF ligands that utilize activin (ActRII/IIB) or BMP (BMPRII) type II receptors as part of their signaling complex (11). The inhibin residues involved in binding to the type II receptors can be inferred from the crystal structure of activin A bound to ActRIIB (12). I...