In the presence of Ca2+ and calmodulin (CM), purified smooth muscle myosin light chain kinase (MLCKase) was found to undergo autophosphorylation at a rate that was about 200-fold slower than its catalytic activity. Up to 1.7 mol of phosphate were incorporated per mole of kinase. Lower levels of incorporation could be correlated with the presence of an endogenous protein phosphatase which could be inhibited with okadaic acid or Microcystin-LR. The major autophosphorylation site was identified as Thr-863 or Thr-865 and was located on the 24-kDa C-terminal fragment of the kinase. In addition, there was a relatively low and variable contribution of a Ca/CM-independent autophosphorylation at Ser-814 or Ser-815. The initial autophosphorylation rates and maximal incorporation levels were highest at a molar ratio of 2 MLCKase to 1 CM and were inhibited at higher CM levels. This indicated that binding of one molecule of the kinase apoenzyme by a CM-kinase complex was necessary for the reaction to occur. Kinetic analysis of the autophosphorylation reaction was consistent with this interpretation and indicated a second-order intermolecular process that included MLCKase dimerization or oligomerization. In contrast, the low Ca/CM-independent contribution was of intramolecular type since it did not depend on the kinase concentration. The autophosphorylation appeared to be involved in a relatively slow modification of the oligomeric properties of the kinase leading to a 2-4-fold amplification of the kinase catalytic activity which followed its activation by CM. Oligomerization and dimerization of the kinase was independently demonstrated by light scattering measurements.