Cytochalasin B and nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBMPR), which inhibit membrane transport of glucose and nucleosides, respectively, have served as photoaffinity ligands that become covalently linked at inhibitor binding sites on transporter-associated proteins. Thus, when membranes from erythrocytes of neonatal pigs with site-bound [3H]cytochalasin B or [3H]NBMPR were irradiated with uv light, two labeled membrane polypeptides (peak Mr values: 55,000 and 64,000, respectively) were identified. Treatment of the photolabeled membranes with endoglycosidase F increased the mobility of [3H]cytochalasin B- and [3H]NBMPR-labeled material (peak Mr values: 44,000 and 57,000, respectively) and limited digestion with trypsin yielded different polypeptide fragments (Mr values: 18,000-23,000 and 43,000, respectively). Identification of the photolabeled polypeptides as transporter components was established using monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) raised against partially purified preparations of band 4.5 from erythrocytes of adult pigs and humans. MAbs 65D4 and 64C7 (anti-human band 4.5), raised in this study, reacted with [3H]cytochalasin B-labeled material from membranes of human erythrocytes and bound to permeabilized erythrocytes but not to intact cells. MAb 65D4 also bound to erythrocytes of mice and neonatal pigs and to a variety of cultured cells (mouse, human, rat), including AE1 mouse lymphoma cells, which lack an NBMPR-sensitive nucleoside transporter. Also employed was MAb 11C4 (anti-pig band 4.5), which recognizes the NBMPR-binding protein of erythrocyte membranes from adult pigs. When membrane proteins from neonatal and adult pigs were subjected to electrophoretic analysis and blots were probed with different MAbs, MAb 65D4 (anti-human band 4.5) bound to material that comigrated with [3H]cytochalasin B-labeled polypeptides (band 4.5) from neonatal, but not adult, pig erythrocytes, whereas MAb 11C4 (anti-pig band 4.5) bound to material that comigrated with [3H]NBMPR-labeled band 4.5 polypeptides of erythrocytes from both neonatal and adult pigs. These results, which indicate structural differences in the cytochalasin B- and NBMPR-binding proteins of pig erythrocytes, establish the presence of both proteins in erythrocytes of neonatal pigs and suggest that only the NBMPR-binding protein is present in erythrocytes of adult pigs.