Adenylate kinase (AK) is known to play an important role in homeostasis of adenine nucleotide metabolism. We isolated cDNAs for rat AK isozymes (AK1, AK2, and AK3), determined their mRNAs in rat tissues by Northern blot analysis, and measured the isozyme activities. Tissue-dependent activities of AK1 and AK2 paralleled the contents of mRNAs. Tissues with high AK1 levels showed low AK2 levels and vice versa, suggesting that tissue-specific expressions of the AK1 and AK2 genes are inversely regulated. AK3 mRNA was detected in most tissues examined, suggesting that AK3 gene expression is constitutive. We further examined developmental changes in mRNAs and enzyme activities of AK isozymes in rat skeletal muscle and liver. In the skeletal muscle, AK1 and AK3 activities started to increase at around the weaning period. AK1 mRNA accumulated at the prenatal stage and further increased during development, while AK3 mRNA was at high levels during the fetal stage and remained fairly constant during development. In the liver, AK2 and AK3 activities started to increase after birth and were further elevated during growth, whereas their mRNAs were present at relatively high levels throughout development. The physiological meanings of the tissue-specific expression of the AK isozyme genes are discussed.