The mechanism of intracellular accumulation of cadmium in a cadmium-ion tolerant yeast, Hansenula ammala B-7, which is an extreme cadmium tolerant strain and has the ability to take up a large amount of cadmium was investigated. The amounts of cadmium taken up by the scalded yeast cells were 2 to 3 times more than the value of the living cells. The living Hansenula anomala B-7 cells adsorbed 74% of cadmium taken up onto the other layer of the cells and 26% of it accumulated inside the cells. But the scalded cells adsorbed 98.3% of cadmium taken up and accumulated 1.7% of it inside the cells. A cadmium uptake and its accumulation were accelerated up to 162.3% and 275.4% by Triton X-100 in the living cells, respectively. Whereas in the scalded cell cadmium uptake was not affected by Triton X-100. Furthermore the cadmium uptake and its accumulation were strongly inhibited by metabolic inhibitors like 2,4-dinitrophenol, sodium azide and potassium cyanide in the living cells, but in the scalded cells cadmium uptake was not affected by metabolic inhibitors. These results suggested that the intracellular accumulation of cadmium by the cadmium-tolerant Hansenula anomala B-7 cells was apparently dependent of biological activity, and also gave evidence of the existance of energy-dependent system.