ADP ribosylation is considered one of the important covalent modifications of cellular proteins catalyzed by ADP ribosyltransferase, which transfers ADP ribose moiety of NAD to an acceptor protein. Because a growing body of evidence has suggested significant biological roles for mono-ADP ribosylations in transmembrane signal transduction and other cell metabolism, how alcohol intake alters them is of interest. Cholera toxin and pertussis toxin have been widely used as probes to investigate the roles of GTP-binding proteins (G-proteins) in the transduction of hormonal and sensory signals. We first tested effects of long-term alcohol intake on these toxin-catalyzed ADP ribosylations of G-proteins in rat liver plasma membranes. Treatment of rat liver plasma membrane with [32P]NAD and thiol-preactivated cholera toxin resulted in the labeling of a 44-kD band, most likely an α-subunit of the stimulatory GTP-binding protein, the extent of which was much greater in alcohol-fed rats than in pair-fed controls. Analogous experiments with pertussis toxin also demonstrated enhancement of toxin-catalyzed ADP ribosylation of the inhibitory GTP-binding protein after long-term alcohol intake. More interesting was that long-term alcohol intake remarkably stimulated endogenous mono-ADP ribosylation of a 58-kD protein in a GTP-dependent manner. In vitro, ethanol (50 mmol/L) or a single load of ethanol (3 gm/kg) did not stimulate the reaction. Thus long-term alcohol intake stimulated both toxin-catalyzed and endogenous mono-ADP ribosylations of proteins in rat liver plasma membranes. Pursuit of alcohol interaction with mono-ADP ribosylation may provide an interesting approach to the study of alcohol's effects on the liver. (HEPATOLOGY 1993;18:870-873).