The highly purified form of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) contained 13 thiols (all in the reduced state) per 72 000 daltons. Modification of the enzyme with equimolar 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoate) (Nbs2) caused rapid formation of a cystine disulfide bridge and an even more rapid loss of enzymatic activity. Formation of the cystine bridge proceeded about 25 times faster than formation of the analogous intramolecular disulfide of dithiothreitol induced by Nbs2. o-Iodosobenzoate, Cd2+, and the 2,3-dimercapto-1-propanol complex of arsenite were potent, time-dependent, irreversible inhibitors of PEPCK. The inactivation by arsenite-2,3-dimercapto-1-propanol and o-iodosobenzoate was first order with respect to both time and inhibitor concentration. The sum of these data indicates the existence in PEPCK of a critical cysteine that is in a vicinal dithiol grouping with a second cysteine. PEP protected against cystine bridge formation induced by equimolar Nbs2 but not against the extent of inactivation. In the presence of PEP, the modification by Nbs2 of one cysteine/mol of enzyme (k = 1.2 X 10(6) M-1 min-1 at pH 7.2) caused nearly complete inactivation. Replacing the bulky 5-thio-2-nitrobenzoate moiety with cyanide did not result in any reactivation. This critical, cyanylated cysteine was determined to be 44% of the distance from the amino terminus.