The nucleotide sequence of the pldB gene of Escherichia coli K-12, which codes for lysophospholipase L2 located in the inner membrane, was determined. The deduced amino acid sequence of lysophospholipase L2 contains 340 amino acid residues, resulting in a protein with a molecular weight of 38,934. It is characterized by a high content of arginine residues (36 out of 340 residues). The amino acid sequence near the NH2-terminus of the protein is composed of a large number of polar or charged amino acid residues, suggesting that this region cannot be a signal peptide. The hydropathy profile of the deduced amino acid sequence of lysophospholipase L2 was studied. Most of the region was rather hydrophilic, and there was no stretch of hydrophobic amino acid region, such as might be predicted to traverse the lipid bilayer. These results are consistent with the experimental observation that lysophospholipase L2 is extracted by salt solution from the membrane fraction, and it may be classified as a peripheral membrane protein. Computer analysis showed that there is no homology in amino acid sequences between lysophospholipase L2 and other extracellular phospholipases, as well as detergent-resistant phospholipase A, which is another membrane-bound phospholipase in E. coli and whose DNA sequence was determined (Homma, H., Kobayashi, T., Chiba, N., Karasawa, K., Mizushima, H., Kudo, I., Inoue, K., Ideka, H., Sekiguchi, M., & Nojima, S. (1984) J. Biochem. 96, 1655-1664). This is the first report of the primary structure of a lysophospholipase.