ABSTRACTd-Serine is an amino acid present in mammalian urine that is inhibitory toEscherichia colistrains lacking a functionaldsdAgene. Counterintuitively, adsdAstrain ofE. coliclinical isolate CFT073 hypercolonizes the bladder and kidneys of mice relative to wild type during a coinfection in the murine model of urinary tract infection. We are interested in the mechanisms for uptake ofd-serine in CFT073.d-Serine entersE. coliK-12 via CycA, thed-alanine transporter andd-cycloserine sensitivity locus. CFT073cycAcan grow on minimal medium withd-serine as a sole carbon source. ThedsdXgene of thedsdCXAlocus is a likely candidate for an additionald-serine transporter based on its predicted amino acid sequence similarity to gluconate transporters. In minimal medium, CFT073dsdXcan grow ond-serine as a sole carbon source; however, CFT073dsdX cycAcannot. Additionally, CFT073dsdXA cycAis not sensitive to inhibitory concentrations ofd-serine during growth on glycerol andd-serine minimal medium.d-[14C]serine uptake experiments with CFT073dsdX cycAharboringdsdXorcycArecombinant plasmids confirm thatd-serine is able to enterE. colicells via CycA or DsdX. In whole-celld-[14C]serine uptake experiments, DsdX has an apparentKmof 58.75 μM and aVmaxof 75.96 nmol/min/mg, and CycA has an apparentKmof 82.40 μM and aVmaxof 58.90 nmol/min/mg. Onlyd-threonine marginally inhibits DsdX-mediatedd-serine transport, whereasd-alanine, glycine, andd-cycloserine inhibit CycA-mediatedd-serine transport. DsdX or CycA is sufficient to transport physiological quantities ofd-serine, but DsdX is ad-serine-specific permease.