The translation of ovomucoid mRNA in a reticulocyte lysate protein-synthesizing system yields a precursor form which contains an NH2-terminal extension of 23 amino acid residues. Edman degradation of radioactive translation products (pre-ovomucoid) identified the following sequence: formula : (see text), where the initiator methionine (in parentheses) is the only residue cleaved from the NH2 terminus during cell-free synthesis and the vertical line indicates the site at which pre-ovomucoid is cleaved in vivo to yield ovomucoid. The precursor sequence differs from those of two other proteins (pre-lysozyme and pre-conalbumin) secreted by the same cell, but resembles these and other secretory protein "signal peptides" in both length and hydrophobicity. Pre-ovomucoid does not interact with trypsin in the same manner as mature ovomucoid.