Several mutants of Escherichia coli affecting aerobic energy generation and energization of the bacterial membrane have been examined for their effect on streptomycin and gentamicin accumulation and susceptibility. A heme-deficient mutant (K207) and two mutants (CJ-8 [colicin K insensitive] and NR-70) associated with defective aerobic active transport were associated with decreased transport of streptomycin and gentamicin and increased resistance to those antibiotics. These mutants also exhibited increased resistance to several other aminoglycoside antibiotics, but not the aminocyclitol spectinomycin. The same observations were made with a ubiquinone-deficient mutant, but a strA derivative of this mutant was shown additionally to be saturable for streptomycin accumulation at a concentration four or more times lower than that required for saturation of the parent. A mutant uncoupled for adenosine 5'-triphosphate synthesis from electron transport and membrane Mg-adenosine 5'-triphosphatase deficient was hypersensitive to those aminoglycosides tested and spectinomycin, and showed enhanced transport of streptomycin and gentamicin. A variety of compounds structurally related to streptomycin were examined at high concentrations for inhibition of streptomycin uptake in a strA mutant of E. coli K-12 SA 1306, but no evidence for competition was detected, suggesting the absence of a common transport carrier. Four different divalent cations were shown to inhibit streptomycin and gentamicin accumulation in E. coli K-12 SA 1306. Divalent cations were shown to inhibit uptake of these two drugs in two bacterial species with distinct cell wall structures, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, and to inhibit streptomycin uptake in spheroplasts of streptomycin-susceptible and -resistant E. coli. However, calcium had almost no inhibitory effect on streptomycin uptake by the ubiquinone-deficient mutant E. coli AN66. These and previous findings have been used to formulate a model for aminoglycoside entry into bacteria using a low-affinity membranous complex involved in membrane energization that includes respiratory quinones, which probably act to bind and transport aminoglycosides across the cell membrane. This phase of transport is associated with the lowest accumulation rate (termed energy-dependent phase I) that is rate limiting for susceptibility. It is further proposed that subsequent association of the membrane-bound aminoglycoside with higher-affinity binding sites on membrane-associated ribosomes carrying out a normal ribosomal cycle and protein synthesis results in a more rapid transport rate (termed energy-dependent phase II). The increased rate could result from a state of membrane energization analogous to that causing enhanced aminoglycoside transport rates seen in the uncoupled mutant, AN120. How this model explains the mechanism by which enzymatically modified aminoglycosides render cells resistant to unmodified aminoglycosides is also discussed.