The stimulation of cyclic GMP accumulation and particulate guanylate cyclase activity by atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) was compared to the affinity and number of ANP receptors in eight cultured cell types. At 100 nM, ANP increased cyclic GMP by 13-fold in bovine adrenal cortical, 35-fold in human lung fibroblast, 58-fold in canine kidney epithelial, 60-fold in bovine aortic smooth muscle, 120-fold in rat mammary epithelial, 260-fold in rat Leydig, 300-fold in bovine kidney epithelial, and 475-fold in bovine aortic endothelial cells. ANP (1 microM) increased particulate guanylate cyclase activity by 1.5-, 2.5-, 3.1-, 3.2-, 5.0-, 7.0-, 7.8-, and 8.0-fold in bovine adrenal cortical, bovine aortic smooth muscle, human lung fibroblast, canine kidney epithelial, rat mammary epithelial, rat Leydig, bovine kidney epithelial, and bovine aortic endothelial cells, respectively. Specific 125I-ANP binding to intact rat Leydig (3,000 sites/cell; Kd = 0.11 nM), bovine aortic endothelial (14,000 sites/cell; Kd = 0.09 nM), bovine adrenal cortical (50,000 sites/cell; Kd = 0.12 nM), human lung fibroblast (80,000 sites/cell; Kd = 0.32 nM), and bovine aortic smooth muscle (310,000 sites/cell; Kd = 0.82 nM) cells was saturable and high affinity. No specific and saturable ANP binding was detected in bovine and canine kidney epithelial and rat mammary epithelial cells. Two ANP-binding sites of 66,000 and 130,000 daltons were specifically labeled by 125I-ANP after cross-linking with disuccinimidyl suberate. The 130,000-dalton ANP-binding sites bound to a GTP-agarose affinity column, and the specific activity of guanylate cyclase was increased by 90-fold in this fraction. Our results demonstrate that the increase in cyclic GMP accumulation and particulate guanylate cyclase activity by ANP does not correlate with the affinity and number of ANP-binding sites. These results suggest that multiple populations of ANP receptors exist in these cells and that only one receptor subtype (130,000 daltons) is associated with particulate guanylate cyclase activity.