Transport of sugars and amino acids in the intestine: evidence for a common carrier.

D-Galactose, L-arginine, and their respective actively transported analogs are partially competitive inhibitors of the active transport of neutral amino acids in the small intestine of hamsters. Since the aforesaid classes of compounds are all transported by similar, sodium-ion-dependent mechanisms and elicit countertransport of each other, all may share a common, polyfunctional carrier in which a series of separate binding sites, namely, one each for sugars, neutral amino acids, basic amino acids, and Na(+) are joined together, as in a mosaic.