Metabolic and genetic control of isoenzyme spectrum of alkaline phosphatase in Escherichia coli.

Three proteins possessing alkaline phosphatase activity were detected in a fraction of periplasmic material of Escherichia coli K-10 and its mutants with constitutive synthesis of alkaline phosphatase. They also showed acid phosphatase, pyrophosphatase and ATPase activities. Through the use of phosphatase-negative mutants it was shown that these proteins were the products of a single structural gene and therefore represented alkaline phosphatase isozymes. The numbers of enzyme isoforms and possibly the spectrum of their phosphohydrolase activities were controlled by exogenous orthophosphate and depended on the integrity of regulator genes for alkaline phosphatase.