A membrane preparation from the testis of maturing Dorset-Leicester-Suffolk sheep, capable of discriminating pituitary LH (lutropin) from placental gonadotropins human choriogonadotropin (hCG) and equine choriogonadotropin is described. Maximum binding of 125I-oLH (ovine lutropin) to the testicular receptors occurred at 4 degrees C in a rapid manner, attaining equilibrium in 12-16 h. Under such optimal conditions, only unlabeled ovine LH or the structurally identical bovine LH effectively competed for receptor occupation. Other highly purified pituitary LH preparations from rat and human pituitaries were weakly (4-10%) active in displacement assays. Purified hCG or equine choriogonadotropin, which were highly potent in rat testicular LH receptor assays, could not compete with 125I-oLH for binding to the sheep LH receptor at 4 degrees C. Thus, the sheep testicular LH receptor was highly specific in recognizing pituitary LH conformation. The presence of an ovine/bovine LH alpha- or beta-subunit in recombinants with hCG subunit counterparts was required to generate an effective conformation capable of receptor recognition. Chemically deglycosylated hCG, containing 75% less carbohydrate and which showed greater binding to other LH receptors, failed to recognize sheep LH receptor, suggesting that excess carbohydrate in hCG was not a factor in hindering binding of the native placental hormone. Scatchard analysis using 125I-hCG/125I-oLH revealed that there were separate sites with similar affinities but vastly different capacities. The hCG binding sites, which could also be effectively occupied by oLH, were less than 10% of oLH binding sites. Thus, the Dorset-Leicester-Suffolk sheep testicular receptor provides an important and unique in vitro test system to distinguish pituitary LH from placental LH-like hormones. We infer that temperature-dependent conformational restrictions of the sheep testicular LH receptor are involved in recognizing differences in these highly similar and structurally homologous hormones.