Intracellular localization and the developmental changes in activities of uricase and allantoinase during germination were investigated with the cotyledons of rape(Brassica napus L.) seedlings. The development anddisappearance of uricase activity took place independently of light, but allantoinase activity was increased by light. The temporal pattern of uricase activity showed that uricolysis was actively taking place in the cotyledons during their early stages of germination. While uricase can be localized in the microbody fraction isolated from crude organelle extracts of the cotyledons by density gradient centrifugation, most of the allantoinase activity found in the microbody fraction did not appear to be an integral part of the microbody.