Proton-coupled peptide transporters mediate the absorption of a large variety of di-and tripeptides as well as peptide-like pharmacologically active compounds. We report a kinetic analysis of the rat kidney highaffinity peptide transporter PepT2 expressed in Xenopus oocytes. By use of simultaneous radioactive uptake and current measurements under voltage-clamp condition, the charge to substrate uptake ratio was found to be close to 2 for both D-Phe-L-Ala and D-Phe-L-Glu, indicating that the H ؉ :substrate stoichiometry is 2:1 and 3:1 for neutral and anionic dipeptides, respectively. The higher stoichiometry for anionic peptides suggests that they are transported in the protonated form. For D-Phe-L-Lys, the charge:uptake ratio averaged 2.4 from pooled experiments, suggesting that Phe-Lys crosses the membrane via PepT2 either in its deprotonated (neutral) or its positively charged form, averaging a H ؉ :Phe-Lys stoichiometry of 1.4:1. These findings led to the overall conclusion that PepT2 couples transport of one peptide molecule to two H ؉ . This is in contrast to the low-affinity transporter PepT1 that couples transport of one peptide to one H ؉ . Quinapril inhibited PepT2-mediated currents in presence or in absence of external substrates. Oocytes expressing PepT2 exhibited quinapril-sensitive outward currents. In the absence of external substrate, a quinapril-sensitive proton inward current (proton leak) was also observed which, together with the observed pH-dependent PepT2-specific presteady-state currents (I pss ), indicates that at least one H ؉ binds to the transporter prior to substrate. PepT2 exhibited I pss in response to hyperpolarization at pH 6.5-8.0. However, contrary to previous observations on various transporters, 1) no significant currents were observed corresponding to voltage jumps returning from hyperpolarization, and 2) at reduced extracellular pH, no significant I pss were observed in either direction. Together with observed lower substrate affinities and decreased PepT2-mediated currents at hyperpolarized V m , our data are consistent with the concept that hyperpolarization exerts inactivation effects on the transporter which are enhanced by low pH. Our studies revealed distinct properties of PepT2, compared with PepT1 and other ion-coupled transporters.In kidney and intestine, enzymatic degradation of proteins and peptides produces oligopeptides that are absorbed across the brush-border membrane of epithelial cells, followed by breakdown into free amino acids (1-3). The absorption is carried out by proton-driven cotransport systems, as demonstrated by studies using brush-border membrane vesicles, epithelial cells in culture, intact epithelial tubules, and recombined peptide transporters (4 -10). A large variety of diand tripeptides, as well as pharmacologically active peptidelike compounds such as -lactam antibiotics and angiotensinconverting enzyme inhibitors, are transported (11-13). Peptide transporters have been cloned since 1994 (3, 14 -19) and were shown to accept many oligopeptide...