Facilitated diffusion of 6-deoxy-D-glucose in bakers' yeast: evidence against phosphorylation-associated transport of glucose.

6-Deoxy-D-glucose, a structural homomorph of D-glucose which lacks a hydroxyl group at carbon 6 and thus cannot be phosphorylated, is transported by Saccharomyces cerevisiae via a facilitated diffusion system with affinity equivalent to that shown with D-glucose. This finding supports the facilitated diffusion mechanism for glucose transport and contradicts theories of transport-associated phosphorylation which hold that sugar phosphorylation is necessary for high-affinity operation of the glucose carrier.