Yeast tRNA ligase is one of two proteins required for the splicing of precursor tRNA molecules containing introns. The 95-kDa tRNA ligase has been purified to homogeneity from a strain of Escherichia coli which overexpresses the protein. The ligation reaction requires three enzymatic activities: phosphodiesterase, polynucleotide kinase, and ligase. By partial proteolytic digestion, we have produced fragments of tRNA ligase which contain the constituent activities. These results provide evidence for a model in which the three constituent activities of ligase are located in three distinct domains separated by protease-sensitive regions. We have also located the active adenylylated site in the ligase domains. It is lysine-114. The tRNA ligase sequence in this region has limited homology to the active-site region of T4 RNA ligase.