Human factor XII was activated by limited proteolysis with trypsin, and the resulting beta-factor XIIa (Mr = 30,000) was isolated by DEAE-Sephacel column chromatography. The complete amino acid sequence of beta-factor XIIa was then determined on peptides produced by enzymatic digestion with either trypsin, chymotrypsin, or Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease and by chemical cleavage at methionyl and tryptophyl bonds. beta-Factor XIIa is a glycoprotein composed of a heavy chain (243 amino acid residues) and a light chain (9 amino acid residues), and these two chains are held together by a disulfide bond. The carbohydrate is attached to asparagine residue 61 in the heavy chain. The amino acid sequence of the heavy chain shows a high degree of homology to the corresponding regions of other plasma serine proteases, such as plasmin, thrombin, factor IXa and factor Xa, as well as the pancreatic digestive enzymes. These results demonstrate that factor XII is the precursor of a typical serine protease that participates in the coagulation cascade.