1. In the intact guinea-pig myometrium, carbachol and oxytocin stimulated a specific receptor-mediated phospholipase C activation, catalysing the breakdown of PtdIns(4,5)P2 with the sequential generation of InsP3, InsP2 and InsP. Stimulation of muscarinic receptors also triggered an inhibition of cyclic AMP accumulation caused by prostacyclin. 2. NaF plus AlCl3 mimicked the effects of carbachol and oxytocin by inducing, in a dose-dependent manner, the generation of all three inositol phosphates as well as uterine contractions. AlCl3 enhanced the fluoride effect, supporting the concept that A1F4- was the active species. Under similar conditions, fluoroaluminates activated the guanine nucleotide regulatory protein Gi, reproducing the inhibitory effect of carbachol on cyclic AMP concentrations. 3. Both carbachol- and oxytocin-mediated increases in inositol phosphates, as well as contractions, were insensitive to pertussis toxin, under conditions where the expression of Gi was totally prevented. Cholera toxin, which activates Gs and enhances cyclic AMP accumulation, failed to affect basal or oxytocin-evoked inositol phosphate generation, but induced a slight, though consistent, attenuation of the muscarinic inositol phosphate response, which was similarly evoked by forskolin. 4. The data provide evidence that, in the myometrium, (a) a G protein mediates the generation of inositol phosphates and the Ca2+-dependent contractile event, (b) the relevant G protein that most probably couples muscarinic and oxytocin receptors to phospholipase C is different from Gi and Gs, the proteins that couple receptors to adenylate cyclase, and (c) cyclic AMP does not seem to control the phosphoinositide cycle, but rather exerts a negative regulation at the muscarinic-receptor level.