The binding of ovine CRF to bovine anterior pituitary membranes was characterized with the radioligand [Nle21, m-125I Tyr32]ovine CRF. The specific binding of CRF was increased by millimolar concentrations of the divalent cations Mg2+, Ca2+, and Mn2+, but was unaffected by the monovalent cations Na+, Ki+, and Li+. The increase in specific binding was not caused by a change in the affinity, but resulted from an apparent increased number of high affinity binding sites. In the presence of 10 mM Mg2+, CRF binding was saturable, specific, and of high affinity. At room temperature, under optimum conditions, binding reached equilibrium within 70 min, remained stable for at least 4 h, was reversible by excess unlabeled peptide, and was characterized by a Kd of 1.3 nM (0.74-2.4) and a total number of sites, R degree, of 90 fmol/mg protein (55-145). The affinity for the bovine membranes was the same as that for rat anterior pituitary membrane homogenates, and the concentrations of sites were similar. The relative binding affinities for the CRF receptor of selected agonists and antagonists in the bovine and rat systems were similar, and both showed good correlation with the relative in vitro potencies at stimulating or antagonizing, respectively, ACTH release from cultured rat anterior pituitary cells. The nonhydrolyzable GTP analog 5'-guanylylimidodiphosphate [Gpp(NH)p], caused a dose-dependent inhibition of bound radioligand, with an EC50 of about 0.5 microM. In the presence of 1 microM Gpp(NH)p, the number of high affinity CRF-binding sites was reduced, but the affinity was unchanged. In the presence of 5 microM Gpp(NH)p, there was no detectable high affinity binding, and the rate of dissociation of previously bound radioligand was increased. The other guanyl nucleotides, GTP and GDP, inhibited binding but to a lesser extent, whereas GMP and (Bu)2cGMP were ineffective. The inhibition was specific for guanyl nucleotides. In view of the established effects of guanyl nucleotides and divalent cations on adenylate cyclase-linked receptors, these data support the involvement of the adenylate cyclase system in the mechanism of action of CRF on the anterior pituitary.