The red cell anion transport protein, band 3, can be selectively modified with phenylglyoxal, which modifies arginyl residues (arg) in proteins, usually with a phenylglyoxal :arg stoichiometry of 2 :1 . Indiscriminate modification of all arg in red cell membrane proteins occurred rapidly when both extra-and intracellular pH were above 10 . Selective modification of extracellularly exposed arg was achieved when ghosts with a neutral or acid intracellular pH were treated with phenylglyoxal in an alkaline medium . The rate and specificity of modification depend on the extracellular chloride concentration . At 165 mM chloride maximum transport inactivation was accompanied by the binding of four phenylglyoxals per band 3 molecule. After removal of extracellular chloride, maximum transport inhibition was accompanied by the incorporation of two phenylglyoxals per band 3, which suggests that transport function is inactivated by the modification of a single arg . After cleavage of band 3 with extracellular chymotrypsin, [14 C]phenylglyoxal was located almost exclusively in a 35,000-dalton peptide . In contrast, the primary covalent binding site of the isothiocyanostilbenedisulfonates is a lysyl residue in the second cleavage product, a 65,000-dalton fragment. This finding supports the view that the transport region of band 3 is composed of strands from both chymotryptic fragments . The binding of phenylglyoxal and the stilbene inhibitors interfered with each other. The rate of phenylglyoxal binding was reduced by a reversibly binding stilbenedisulfonate (DNDS), and covalent binding of [3 H]DIDS to phenylglyoxal-modified membranes was strongly delayed . At DIDS concentrations below 10 j,M, only 50% of the band 3 molecules were labeled with [ 3H]-DIDS during 90 min at 38°C, thereby demonstrating an interaction between binding of the two inhibitors to the protomers of the oligomeric band 3 molecules .