Amino acid sequences of two tryptic peptides derived from enriched bovine osteogenic protein preparations revealed considerable homology to two members of the TGF‐beta (transforming growth factor beta) supergene family, DPP (decapentaplegic protein) of Drosophila and Vg‐1 (vegetal protein) of Xenopus. Building upon this information we constructed a synthetic consensus gene to use as a probe to screen human genomic libraries. This resulted in the isolation of three interrelated genes. Among these were BMP‐2b and BMP‐3 which have recently been described by others. The third gene, termed OP‐1 (osteogenic protein one), is new and was subsequently shown to encode the human homolog of a major component of bovine osteogenic protein. The genomic clones were used to isolate the corresponding complementary DNA (cDNA) clones. Sequence analysis indicates that OP‐1 is a relative of the murine Vgr‐1 (Vg‐1 related gene). This report describes the cDNA structure and putative amino acid sequence of OP‐1.