We characterized the cell-free activating system of the superoxide (O2-)-producing NADPH oxidase of pig neutrophils. Activation of the oxidase required both the membrane and cytosolic fractions in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. Chromatography on 2',5'-ADP-Sepharose resulted in separation of the cytosolic fraction into two fractions, the flow-through and bound fractions, which synergistically supported the O2- production with the membrane fraction in the absence of guanosine 5'-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) (GTP gamma S), whereas only the bound fraction besides the membrane fraction was required for the activation in the presence of GTP gamma S. The effective factors in the bound fraction were further purified by gel filtration on Superdex G-200 and anion exchange chromatography on Mono Q and found to be p47-phox and p63-phox. The purified recombinant p47-phox and p65-phox replaced corresponding native factors for the activation. These results suggest that the membrane fraction from pig neutrophils contains the GTP-binding protein responsible for the activation. Furthermore, the presence of the GTP-binding protein for the activation in the flow-through fraction from 2',5'-ADP-Sepharose was also shown on the basis of the findings that extensive dialysis of the flow-through fraction resulted in complete loss of the ability to activate the oxidase with the recombinant factors and the washed membrane of human neutrophils which contained no GTP-binding protein for the activation and the lost ability was recovered by the addition of GTP gamma S. Thus, activation of the oxidase in the cell-free system of pig neutrophils absolutely requires the GTP-binding protein which localizes in the membrane fraction or in the cytosolic fraction.