Washed membrane particles from pig Graafian follicles larger than 6 mm in diameter were found to contain an adenylyl cyclase system that is highly responsive to luteinizing hormone (LH). Under the assay conditions used (1.5 mM ATP, 5 mM MgCl2, 1.4 mM EDTA, and 1.0 mM ethylene glycol bis(beta-aminoethyl)-N,N'-tetraacetic acid, pH 7.0) LH stimulated enzyme activity up to 7-fold. Half-maximal activation was obtained between 3 and 6 X 10(-10) M of added LH, provided the reaction was carried out under equilibrium conditions. In contrast to findings in large follicles, adenylyl cyclase activity was found to be unresponsive to LH in small immature follicles (1 to 2 mm in diameter) and partially responsive to LH (2- to 3-fold stimulation over basal) in follicles of medium size (3 to 5 mm in diameter). Washed membrane particles from follicles larger than 6 mm were found to contain also an ATP- and Mg2+-dependent process which, upon incubation at 30 degrees, causes the adenylyl cyclase system to lose its susceptibility to respond to LH. Because this loss of LH-stimulated activity was not accompanied by a concomitant loss of basal activity, it was concluded to be the expression of a desensitization reaction. Desensitization was almost undetectable at 5 mM total added MgCl2 and required, to be readily detectable, addition of MgCl2 concentrations in excess of 10 mM. LH was found to stimulate desensitization in the presence of 1 mM cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate by diminishing the requirement for MgCl2. Loss of LH-stimulated adenylyl cyclase activity was readily detectable at 5.0 mM total added MgCl2 in the presence of 10 mug per ml of LH. Half-maximal stimulation of desensitization by LH was found to occur at about 25 X 10(-10) M, i.e. at about 4 to 6 times higher concentrations than needed for half-maximal stimulation of adenylyl cyclase activity. Half-maximal LH-stimulated desensitization was obtained with 0.5 to 0.7 mM ATP in the incubation. Neither GTP, nor adenyl-5'-yl imidodiphosphate, the nonphosphorylating imidodiphosphate analogue of ATP, supported the desensitization reaction, suggesting that this process may be mediated via phosphorylation of one or more of the components of the adenylyl cyclase system. LH-stimulated desensitization was detected also in washed membrane particles derived from dissected rabbit Graafian follicles, whose adenylyl cyclase becomes desensitized in vivo within minutes after human chorionic gonadotropin injection (Hunzicker-Dunn, M., and Birnbaumer, L., Endocrinology, in press), but not in membrane particles from corpora lutea of pregnant or pseudopregnant rabbits, whose adenylyl cyclase becomes desensitized in vivo only several hours or days after human chorionic gonadotropin injection (Hunzicker-Dunn, M., and Birnbaumer, L., Endocrinology, in press). It is suggested that both actions of LH (stimulation of adenylyl cyclase and stimulation of desensitization) are receptor-mediated, and that neither of them is mediated by cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate...