The pharmacological and biochemical properties of rat m1 and m3 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChR) stably transfected into Chinese hamster ovary-K1 (CHO) cells were characterized with ligand binding, affinity labeling and biochemical assays. Both mAChR subtypes display saturable, high affinity binding of [3H]-quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB) and a rank order of antagonist potency of QNB greater than atropine greater than pirenzepine greater than AF-DX 116. Carbachol displacement of [3H]-QNB binding to the m3 mAChR revealed an approximate 17-fold higher affinity than observed with the m1 mAChR. [3H]-propylbenzilylcholine mustard (PrBCM) labeling of mAChR revealed that m1 and m3 mAChR migrated on SDS-polyacrylamide gels with apparent molecular masses of 80,000 and 94,000 daltons, respectively, consistent with the known differences in their molecular sizes. Both m1 and m3 mAChR elicited dose-dependent increases in the hydrolysis of phosphoinositides; however, the maximal increase in total inositol phosphates elicited with the m1 mAChR was approximately 2-fold greater than that observed in cells expressing similar densities of m3 mAChR. Agonist activation of the m1 mAChR also elicited increases in basal and forskolin-stimulated cAMP, whereas the m3 mAChR had no effect on intracellular cAMP levels. These data suggest that although m1 and m3 mAChR display a considerable degree of structural homology, they exhibit distinct pharmacological and biochemical properties.