Interstitial retinol-binding protein (IRBP) is a glycoprotein that shuttles retinoids between the retina and pigment epithelium and is secreted by the photoreceptor cells of the vertebrate eye. Human retina cDNA libraries in lambda gt10 were screened with a previously isolated human IRBP probe (H.4 IRBP), yielding five overlapping cDNA clones generating a 4223-base sequence. A 17-kilobase pair clone (HGL.3) isolated by screening a human genomic library in EMBL3 with H.4 IRBP yielded a 2.5-kilobase pair SstI fragment that overlapped the 5' end of the cDNA sequence by 329 nucleotide residues. An open reading frame encoded the N-terminal sequence of human IRBP and predicted a protein consisting of 1262 amino acids with a molecular mass of 136,600. Two putative N-linked glycosylation sites were identified. The translated sequence suggests that there is a 16-amino acid presumptive signal peptide rich in hydrophobic residues and with a high alpha-helix probability preceding the N terminus of the mature protein. The amino acid sequence of human IRBP could be aligned with 87% identity with the amino acid sequences of 31 peptides (605 residues) purified from a tryptic digest of bovine IRBP. The protein sequence of human IRBP contains four duplicated segments (302-310 residues in length) with 33-38% identity. From the degree of identity between the bovine and human sequences, it is possible that IRBP evolved by several gene duplications that occurred 600-800 million years ago, before the emergence of the vertebrates.