Purification and characterization of a low-molecular-weight acid phosphatase--a phosphotyrosyl-protein phosphatase from bovine heart

Abstract

A low-molecular-weight acid phosphatase that is representative of a group recently shown to be phosphotyrosyl protein phosphatases was purified to homogeneity from bovine heart. The enzyme was a monomer with a molecular mass of 18 kDa and had an isoelectric point of 7.0. The absorption coefficient, E1% 1cm was 9.65 at 280 nm. The enzyme had pH optima of 5.3 and 6.0 with the substrates p-nitrophenyl phosphate and tyrosine phosphate, respectively. When measured at pH 5 and 37 degrees C, the enzyme had specific activities of 114 and 86 mumol min-1 mg-1 for p-nitrophenyl phosphate and tyrosine O-phosphate, respectively, while the Km values were 0.38 and 14 mM. The enzyme was highly specific for aryl monophosphate esters and showed little or no activity toward aliphatic phosphate esters, with the remarkable exception of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and certain of its structural analogs. As shown by 31P NMR data, the activity toward FMN was due to the hydrolysis of one of the eight components present in the (commercial) sample. Both molybdate and vanadate were potent inhibitors, with inhibition constants of 37 and 29 microM, respectively; tartrate and fluoride had little effect on enzymatic activity. A two-stage reversible denaturation of the enzyme by guanidine HCl was observed with midpoints of 0.25 and 1.75 M, respectively. The amino acid composition was homologous to the low-molecular-weight acid phosphatases from other tissue. The enzyme showed immunological cross-reactivity against low-molecular-weight human liver acid phosphatase. There were 7 or 8 accessible cysteines on the monomeric protein and at least one was essential for enzyme activity. The enzyme also had phosphotransferase activity, for example transferring phosphate from p-nitrophenyl phosphate to a wide variety of alcohol acceptors.