Why are mammalian alkaline phosphatases much more active than bacterial alkaline phosphatases?

Abstract

Mammalian alkaline phosphatases are 20-30-fold more active than the corresponding bacterial enzymes even though their amino acid sequences are 25-30% absolutely conserved. In the active-site region there are two noticeable differences between the sequences of the bacterial and mammalian enzymes. In the Escherichia coli enzyme positions 153 and 328 are Asp and Lys, respectively, but in the mammalian enzymes His is observed at both of these positions. Site-specific mutagenesis, genetic and X-ray crystallographic data, which will be summarized here, suggest that the His substitutions at positions 153 and 328 are primarily responsible for the differences in properties between the bacterial and mammalian alkaline phosphatases.