Arsenic exposure is associated with hypertension, diabetes and cancer. Some mammals methylate arsenic. Saccharomyces cerevisiae hexose permeases catalyze As(OH) 3 uptake. Here we report that mammalian glucose transporter GLUT1 catalyzes As(OH) 3 and CH 3 As(OH) 2 uptake in yeast or in Xenopus laevis öocytes. Expression of GLUT1 in a yeast lacking other glucose transporters allows for growth on glucose. Yeast expressing yeast HXT1 or rat GLUT1 transport As(OH) 3 and CH 3 As (OH) 2 . The K m of GLUT1 is to 1.2 mM for CH 3 As(OH) 2 , compared to a K m of 3 mM for glucose. Inhibition between glucose and CH 3 As(OH) 2 is noncompetitive, suggesting differences between the translocation pathways of hexoses and arsenicals. Both human and rat GLUT1 catalyze uptake of both As(OH) 3 and CH 3 As(OH) 2 in öocytes. Thus GLUT1 may be a major pathway uptake of both inorganic and methylated arsenicals in erythrocytes or the epithelial cells of the blood-brain barrier, contributing to arsenic-related cardiovascular problems and neurotoxicity.Arsenic ranks first on the United States Government's Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability (Superfund) Act Priority List of Hazardous Substances . In response to the Safe Water Drinking Act, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has set the allowable level of arsenic in drinking water at 10 ppb , which is less than the level in the water supplies of many U.S. municipalities . In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pesticide Programs is concerned with exposure to the organic arsenicals methylarsenic acid and dimethylarsenic acid, pentavalent arsenicals used as pesticides and herbicides .Health effects associated with arsenic exposure include cardiovascular and peripheral vascular disease, neurological disorders, diabetes mellitus and various cancers, including liver, bladder, kidney and skin [1][2][3]. Arsenic trioxide, which is As 2 O 3 in the solid, anhydrous form and As (OH) 3 in solution at physiological pH [4], is used clinically as a chemotherapeutic drug for treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia [5]. Although epidemiological studies demonstrated that arsenic exposure is associated with a high frequency of circulatory and neurological problems [2,6,7], how arsenic causes non-cancer-related diseases is far from clear. Here we report that GLUT1 facilitates uptake of As(OH) 3 and CH 3 As(OH) 2 using heterologous expression in S. cerevisiae and X. laevis öocytes. S. cerevisiae is a valuable model system for structure-function studies of mammalian membrane proteins such as GLUT1 [22,23]. A yeast strain with low uptake of As(OH) 3 and CH 3 As(OH) 2 was constructed by deletion of all 18 hexose transporters, FPS1, which encodes an aquaglyceroporin that facilitates As(OH) 3 influx, and ACR3, the gene for an...