A cDNA clone for pumpkin acyl-CoA oxidase (EC 1.3.3.6; ACOX) was isolated from a lambdagt11 cDNA library constructed from poly(A)+ RNA extracted from etiolated cotyledons. The inserted cDNA clone contains 2313 nucleotides and encodes a polypeptide of 690 amino acids. Analysis of the amino-terminal sequence of the protein indicates that the pumpkin acyl-CoA oxidase protein is synthesized as a larger precursor containing a cleavable amino-terminal presequence of 45 amino acids. This presequence shows high similarity to the typical peroxisomal targeting signal (PTS2). Western blot analysis following cell fractionation in a sucrose gradient revealed that ACOX is localized in glyoxysomes. A partial purification of ACOX from etiolated pumpkin cotyledons indicated that the ACOX cDNA codes for a long chain acyl-CoA oxidase. The amount of ACOX increased and reached to the maximum activity by day 5 of germination but decreased about 4-fold on the following days during the subsequent microbody transition from glyoxysomes to leaf peroxisomes. By contrast, the amount of mRNA was already high at day 1 of germination, increased by about 30% at day 3, and faded completely by day 7. These data indicated that the expression pattern of ACOX was very similar to that of the glyoxysomal enzyme 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, another marker enzyme of the beta-oxidation spiral, during germination and suggested that the expression of each enzyme of beta-oxidation is coordinately regulated.