A rat thyrotropin (thyroid-stimulating hormone, TSH) receptor cDNA was isolated that encoded a protein of 764 amino acids, Mr 86,528. Transfection of the cDNA caused COS-7 cells to develop a TSH-sensitive adenylate cyclase response and the ability to bind 125I-labeled TSH; both activities were similar to those of rat FRTL-5 thyroid cells and not duplicated by lutropin. The gene represented by the cDNA was assigned to mouse chromosome 12 and human chromosome 14. Northern analyses identified two species of mRNA, 5.6 and 3.3 kilobases, in FRTL-5 thyroid cells; the transcripts appeared to differ only in the extent of their 3' noncoding sequences. There were minimal amounts of the two mRNAs in rat ovary, and neither was detected in RNA preparations from rat testis, liver, lung, brain, spleen, and FRT thyroid cells, which do not have a functional TSH receptor. TSH decreased both mRNA species 3- to 4-fold within 8 hr in FRTL-5 thyroid cells; down-regulation was dependent on TSH concentration and duplicated by forskolin, cholera toxin, or 8-bromo-cAMP but not by a phorbol ester. Down-regulation was also duplicated by thyroid-stimulating autoantibodies, which increased cAMP levels, but not by thyrotropin binding-inhibiting auto-antibodies, which actually increased TSH receptor mRNA levels.