Organic anion transporters in the kidney proximal tubule play an essential role in eliminating a wide range of organic anions including endogenous compounds, xenobiotics, and their metabolites, thereby preventing their potentially toxic effects within the body. We have previously cloned a cDNA encoding an organic anion transporter from mouse kidney (mOAT) (Lopez-Nieto, C. E., You, G., Bush, K. T., Barros, E. J. G., Beier, D. R., and Nigam, S. K. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 6471-6478; Kuze, K., Graves, P., Leahy, A., Wilson, P., Stuhlmann, H., and You, G. (1999) J. Biol. Chem. 274, 1519 -1524). In the present study, we assessed the potential for regulation of this transporter by heterologous expression of mOAT in the pig proximal tubule-like cell line, LLC-PK 1 . We report here that both protein phosphatase (PP1/PP2A) inhibitor, okadaic acid, and protein kinase C (PKC) activators down-regulate mOAT-mediated transport of para-aminohippuric acid (PAH), a prototypic organic anion, in a time-and concentrationdependent manner. However their mechanisms of action for this down-regulation are distinct. Okadaic acid modulated PAH transport, at least in part, through phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of mOAT; phosphoamino acid analysis indicated this phosphorylation occurs on serine. In contrast, PKC activation induced a decrease in the maximum transport velocity (V max ) of PAH transport without direct phosphorylation of the transporter protein. Together these results provide the first demonstration that regulation of organic anion transport by mOAT is likely to be tightly controlled directly and indirectly by phosphatase PP1/PP2A and PKC. Our results also suggest that kinases other than PKC are involved in this process.Renal organic anion transport plays a vital role in the elimination of a wide variety of potentially toxic and negatively charged waste products of metabolism, drugs, environmental pollutants, and their metabolites from the body. The transport mechanisms responsible for this elimination have been extensively studied (3-5). Based on these studies, it has been suggested that the transport of organic anions is a complex process involving distinctly different proteins at the apical and basolateral membranes of the proximal tubule cells. Organic anions are transported across the basolateral membrane into the cell in exchange for intracellular dicarboxylates, which are subsequently returned into the cell via a sodium-dependent dicarboxylate transporter. Once inside the cell, organic anions are subject to intracellular binding and sequestration within vesicular structures. Finally, luminal exit is thought to occur by anion exchange and/or facilitated diffusion (3-5).We (1, 2) and others (6 -11) have recently cloned the organic anion transporter cDNA from kidneys of multiple species. Using computer modeling based on hydropathy analysis, the predicted proteins share several common features, including 12 putative membrane-spanning segments, a cluster of potential glycosylation sites located in the first extracellular...