A water-soluble Mg2+-ATPase from erythrocyte membranes.

A ouabain-insensitive ATPase activity associated with the water-soluble proteins of the human and bovine erythrocyte membrane is demonstrated by means of activity-staining in polyacrylamide gels. The ATPase activity from both sources had an absolute requirement for Mg2+, activity becoming easily detectable at 0.2 mM Mg2+. At low Mg2+ concentrations added Ca2+ appeared to decrease the intensity of the ATPase stain. The activity is unaffected by monovalent cations, does not hydrolyse p-nitrophenyl phosphate and is not inhibited by 2 : 4 dinitrophenol. The ATPase has an apparent molecular weight of approximately 100 000 as determined by electrophoresis in acrylamide gels containing dodecyl sulphate.