The incorporation of radioactive orthophosphate into the cell walls of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was studied. ³³P-labeled cell walls were extensively extracted with hot sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Of the remaining insoluble radioactivity more than 90% could be released by laminarinase. This radioactive material stayed in the stacking gel during SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis but entered the separating gel upon treatment with N-glycosidase F, indicating that phosphate was linked directly or indirectly to N-mannosylated glycoproteins. The phosphate was bound to covalently linked cell wall proteins as mannose-6-phosphate, the same type of linkage shown previously for soluble mannoproteins (L. Ballou, L. M. Hernandez, E. Alvarado, and C. E. Ballou, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87:3368-3372, 1990). From the phosphate-labeled glycoprotein fraction released by laminarinase, three cell wall mannoproteins, Ccw12p, Ccw13p and Ccw14p, were isolated and identified by N-terminal sequencing. For Ccw13p (encoded by DAN1 [also called TIR3]) and Ccw12p the association with the cell wall has not been described before; Ccw14p is identical with cell wall protein Icwp (I. Moukadiri, J. Armero, A. Abad, R. Sentandreu, and J. Zueco, J. Bacteriol. 179:2154-2162, 1997). In ccw12, ccw13, or ccw14 single or double mutants neither the amount of radioactive phosphate incorporated into cell wall proteins nor its position in the stacking gel was changed. However, the triple mutant brought about a shift of the ³³P-labeled glycoprotein components from the stacking gel into the separating gel. The disruption of CCW12 results in a pronounced sensitivity of the cells to calcofluor white and Congo red. In addition, the ccw12 mutant shows a decrease in mating efficiency and a defect in agglutination.