N-Acetylglutamate synthase [EC 2.3.1], which catalyzes the synthesis of N-acetylglutamate, a key effector of carbamoyl-phosphate synthase (ammonia) [EC 6.3.4.16] in the liver of ureotelic animals, was demonstrated to be present in rat small intestinal mucosa. The activity of the enzyme was estimated to be 0.17 nmol N-acetylglutamate formed X (g mucosa)-1 X min-1 at 25 degrees C. Little activity was found in the muscle layer and serosa of the small intestine. The intestinal villous cells were separated from everted intestine, disrupted by nitrogen cavitation, and fractionated into nuclear, mitochondrial, microsomal, and soluble fractions. The mitochondria isolated by this method retained integrity of respiratory function. The mitochondrial fraction was further subjected to isopycnic centrifugation using Percoll (colloidal silica coated with polyvinylpyrrolidone). The activities of N-acetylglutamate synthase and the first two urea cycle enzymes, carbamoylphosphate synthase (ammonia) and ornithine carbamoyltransferase [EC 2.1.3.3], were cofractionated with mitochondrial marker enzymes during the cell fractionation and the isopycnic centrifugation. N-Acetylglutamate synthase, purified 8-fold from the acetone powder extract of small intestinal mucosa, had a high substrate specificity for L-glutamate and acetyl-CoA. The synthase reaction fitted normal Michaelis-Menten kinetics with respect to both L-glutamate (apparent Km, 2.5 mM) and acetyl-CoA (apparent Km, 0.8 mM). L-Arginine stimulated the enzyme activity by increasing the maximal velocity with no effect on apparent Km values for the substrates. These properties were similar to those of the rat liver enzyme (Shigesada & Tatibana (1978) Eur. J. Biochem. 84, 285-291). These results suggest that a function of the intestinal N-acetylglutamate is to activate carbamoyl-phosphate synthase (ammonia) and to allow citrulline synthesis in the tissue.