A protein with an apparent Mr of 33,000 was previously purified from the EGTA eluate of a human placental particulate fraction. We now report the amino acid sequence of approximately one-third of this protein and show that it has extensive homology with a newly defined family of Ca2+-binding proteins termed annexins. The partial sequence of the placental protein could be aligned with the sequence of either lipocortin I or calpactin I such that 49% and 58%, respectively, of the residues were identical. A comparison of the partial sequences of the placental protein with the partial sequence of bovine endonexin revealed 74% sequence identity. Based on this close relationship, the placental protein was named endonexin II. Equilibrium dialysis showed that endonexin II bound Ca2+ (Kd >0.5 mM) and the affinity was increased by phosphatidylserine liposomes (Kd 1 i00 jtM Members of this family include proteins initially investigated as substrates for protein-tyrosine kinases, mediators of exocytosis, or components of the cytoskeleton, but their exact physiological roles are not yet known. The realization that they were related was the unexpected result of structural studies. The complete amino acid sequences of two of these proteins, lipocortin I (2) and calpactin I (3-5), have been deduced from cDNA clones: lipocortin I and calpactin I also have been called calpactin 11 (6) and lipocortin II (5), respectively. These proteins have "50% overall sequence homology but have only limited homology (14%) in the N-terminal domain containing 54 amino acids. The Nterminal domains are not required for Ca2+ or phospholipid binding (7,8). The larger core domains contain a 4-fold internal repeat containing a highly conserved 17-amino acid sequence termed the consensus sequence (3, 5). In addition, a bovine protein called endonexin has been partially sequenced and shown to contain four of these consensus regions (9). Partial sequence information of Torpedo calelectrin and protein II shows that these proteins also contain this consensus sequence (9). Other proteins, including calcimedins (10), chromobindins (11), and a variety of proteins with an apparent Mr of ='70,000 (10,11), may be related structurally; however, sequence information is not yet available. None ofthese proteins appears to be related structurally to the Ca2"-binding protein calmodulin or the Ca2+/phospholipid-dependent enzyme protein kinase C.Lipocortin 1 (12-16) and calpactin I (17, 18) are substrates for the protein-tyrosine kinase activities associated with the epidermal growth factor receptor and pp6osrc, respectively, which raises the possibility that these proteins are involved in the regulation of cellular proliferation. However, neither the physiological roles of these proteins nor the effect of phosphorylation on their activities is known. Lipocortin I inhibits phospholipase A2 in an in vitro assay and has been proposed to mediate the steroid-induced antiinflammatory response (2, 19). However, two independent studies have shown that the phospholipase A...