Cotransport proteins are responsible for the active accumulation of organic substrates in cells. Na+ gradients provide the driving force for uptake of most substrates into eukaryotes and for a few substrates in some prokaryotes. We report here the cloning and sequencing of the human intestinal Na+/glucose cotransporter (SGLT1) and compare its structure with other cloned transporters. At the DNA level and the predicted amino acid and secondary structure levels, close homology is evident between the human and rabbit intestinal Na+/glucose cotransporters, and a significant homology is found between these and the Escherichia coli Na+/proline cotransporter (putP). No homology is detectible with other known proteins. We infer from these results that the mammalian Na+/glucose and prokaryote Na+/proline cotransporters share a common ancestral gene.