More than 30 aminophosphonates were synthesized to probe how the structural changes introduced into the phosphonic acid analogue of leucine, a potent inhibitor of cytosolic leucine aminopeptidase (Giannousis & Bartlett, 1987), affect their ability to inhibit cytosolic (EC 3.4.11.1) and microsomal (EC 3.4.11.2) aminopeptidases. Although most of the compounds studied were found to exert only a modest competitive inhibitory effect, nearly every modification of the structure of the phosphonic acid analogue of leucine was reflected in a marked difference in the affinities of these compounds for the two enzymes. [1-Amino-2-(N-alkylamino)ethyl]phosphonic acids are effective inhibitors of the microsomal enzyme, acting in a time-dependent manner. Kinetic data obtained for these inhibitors correspond to the mechanism for a biphasic slow-binding inhibition process: E + I in equilibrium E* in equilibrium E*I, in which the slow initial isomerization of the enzyme is followed by the fast formation of enzyme-inhibitor complex. The most effective inhibitor of this type was [1-amino-2-(N-cyclohexylamino)ethyl]phosphonic acid, which has a Ki value of 0.87 microM toward the microsomal aminopeptidase--a value that can be considered as equipotent with bestatin and with leucinal and hydroxamic acids, the strongest known nonpeptide inhibitors of this enzyme.