The transport of inorganic phosphate anions into yeast cells (after preincubation with glucose, fructose or another metabolizable sugar, and in the presence of glucose) shows two kinetic components with half-saturation constants of 40 mumol/L and 2.4 mmol/L. The uptake was strikingly stimulated by 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-dGlc) at lower concentrations but inhibited above 100 mmol/L. A similar stimulation was caused by adenine (0.01-1 mmol/L) and a very small one by uracil and inorganic sulfate. It is suggested that either a phosphorylation reaction accompanies the transport (2-dGlc) or that some compounds stimulate the H(+)-ATPase more than inorganic phosphate itself and thus increase its rate of transport.