Glycogenin, the autoglucosyltransferase that initiates the de novo biosynthesis of glycogen, photoaffinity labeled with [beta32P]5-azido-UDP-glucose. The photoinsertion of the azidouridine derivative showed activating ultraviolet light dependency, saturation effects, and inhibition by UDP-glucose, thus demonstrating the specificity of the interaction. In the absence of Mn2+, the requirement for the catalytic activity of glycogenin, the photolabeling decreased by 70%. Competitive binding experiments indicated that the pyrophosphate or a phosphate was the moiety of UDP-glucose implicated in the strongest interaction at the binding site. Proteolytic digestion of photolabeled glycogenin resulted in the identification of two labeled fragments, 89-143 and 168-233, that carried the uridine binding sites. This is the first report of the region of glycogenin that harbors the UDP-glucose-binding domain.