. O-GlcNAc is thought to act as a modulator of protein function, in a manner analogous to protein phosphorylation; the addition of O-GlcNAc to the protein backbone is dynamic and responds to morphogens, the cell cycle, and changes in glucose metabolism (1). The mechanisms by which O-GlcNAc act are complex, and changes in O-GlcNAc levels have been shown to alter the behavior of specific proteins by modulating the following: 1) the half-life and proteolytic processing of proteins (2-7); 2) subcellular localization (8 -14); 3) protein-protein interactions (6, 15, 16); 4) DNA binding (17); and 5) enzyme activity or regulation (18 -20). One mechanism by which O-GlcNAc may mediate these events is by altering protein phosphorylation. Notably, phosphorylation and O-GlcNAc are reciprocal on some well studied proteins, which include the C-terminal domain of the large subunit of RNA polymerase (21, 22), the c-myc protooncogene (23-25), SV40 large T-antigen (26), estrogen receptor- (7), and endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (18). These observations suggest that O-GlcNAc and phosphorylation may modulate each other (27-29).Increasing extracellular glucose concentrations affects the functioning of key cellular proteins in an O-GlcNAc-dependent manner, including endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (18), mSin3a (30), the transcription factors, YY1 (31), Sp1 (5, 32-34), CREB (35), and the 26 S proteosomal complex (36, 37). UDPGlcNAc:polypeptide O--N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (OGT; EC 2.4.1.94), the enzyme that adds O-GlcNAc, is responsive across the physiological range of UDP-GlcNAc. Moreover, the substrate specificity of OGT changes at different UDPGlcNAc concentrations (38). Both in vitro and in vivo data support a model where increased UDP-GlcNAc levels, due to hyperglycemia, result in increased O-GlcNAc levels, leading to insulin resistance, a hallmark of type II diabetes (1, 39). These data and others have led researchers to propose that O-GlcNAc is a nutritional sensor (1, 39 -41).In response to multiple forms of stress, cells rapidly increase glucose uptake. The ability of cells to transport glucose has been linked to the capacity of cells to respond and survive deleterious cellular conditions (42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56). In many studies, blocking both glycolysis (48,51,57) and the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (58 -61) results in decreased survival of cells. In some instances, alternative energy sources have been provided suggesting that depletion of ATP levels does NOT explain the decrease in survival (48,51,57). Several insulin-resistant models, including the long lived Caenorhabditis elegans Daf-2 knockout, have an increased stress tolerance to a variety of agents (62)(63)(64). Based upon these data, and recent observations suggesting that heat shock protein (HSP) 70 may act as an O-GlcNAc lectin (65), we investigated the possible link between stress tolerance and O-GlcNAc. We demonstrate that in response to all forms of cellular stress tested, multiple cell lines