The three members of the serpin family, corticosteroid binding globulin, ␣1-antitrypsin, and C1 inhibitor are secreted apically from Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, whereas two homologous family members, antithrombin and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, are secreted in a nonpolarized fashion. cDNAs coding for chimeras composed of complementary portions of an apically targeted serpin and a nonsorted serpin were generated, expressed in MDCK cells, and the ratio between apical and basolateral secretion was analyzed. These experiments identified an amino-terminal sequence of corticosteroid binding globulin (residues 1-19) that is sufficient to direct a chimera with antithrombin mainly to the apical side. A deletion/mutagenesis analysis showed that no individual amino acid is absolutely required for the apical targeting ability of amino acids 1-30 of corticosteroid binding globulin. The corresponding amino-terminal sequences of ␣1-antitrypsin and C1 inhibitor were also sufficient to confer apical sorting. Based on our results we suggest that the apical targeting ability is encoded in the conformation of the protein.In epithelial cells, plasma membrane and secretory proteins are sorted in a polarized manner either to the apical or the basolateral surface. Sorting signals specifying basolateral sorting have been identified in the cytoplasmic domains of many membrane proteins (1, 2). Most of them are characterized either by essential tyrosine (3) or dileucine motifs (4). There is evidence that basolateral sorting of the receptors for transferrin and low density lipoproteins is mediated by AP-1 clathrin adaptors with an epithelia-specific isoform of subunit 1 (1B; Ref. 5). Much less is known about the signals and mechanisms of apical sorting. Apical signals appear to be localized to the noncytosolic segments of membrane proteins, since truncation mutants lacking the cytosolic and transmembrane portions were generally found to retain apical polarity (6 -9). Recently, a role of the transmembrane domains in apical sorting has been demonstrated for several proteins (10 -13). Also motifs in the cytoplasmic tails of rhodopsin (14) and the Na ϩ -dependent bile acid transporter (15, 16) have been shown to mediate apical sorting. With respect to polarized secretion of secretory proteins, it has been shown, for example, that MadinDarby canine kidney (MDCK) 1 cells secrete gp80/clusterin (17), erythropoietin (18), and corticosteroid binding globulin (CBG) (19) mainly from the apical side, whereas a range of proteins, including growth hormone, lysozyme, prochymosin, the immunoglobulin chain (20), cystatin C (6), and uteroglobin (21), are secreted equally from both plasma membrane domains. It was shown that N-linked glycans can act as apical targeting signals for secretory proteins, based on the observation that growth hormone, normally secreted in a nonpolarized manner from MDCK cells, is secreted mainly from the apical side after insertion of one or two N-linked glycosylation sites (22). In addition, erythropoietin, which...