Purification and characterization of extracellular soluble and membrane-bound insoluble alkaline phosphatases possessing phosphodiesterase activities in Bacillus subtilis.

A membrane-bound insoluble alkaline phosphatase (APase) and an extracellular soluble APase were purified, respectively, from a membrane preparation of Bacillus subtilis 6160-BC6, which carries a mutation to produce APase constitutively, and from a culture fluid of a mutant strain. RAN 1, isolated from strain 6160-BC6, which produces an extracellular soluble APase. The two preparations were homogeneous, as judged by sodium dodecyl sulfate discontinuous gel electrophoresis and by gel electrophoreses in the presence of 8 M urea at pH 9.3 and 4.3. RAN 1 APase was crystallized. Both preparations possessed phosphatase and phosphodiesterase activities, and their pH optima were both at 9.5. They were competitively inhibited by phosphate or arsenate and were activated by the addition of Ca2+ but not by Zn2+. The APase and alkaline phosphodiesterase activities seemed to be contained in the same protein molecule. The molecular weight of 6160-BC6 APase was estimated to be 46,000 +/- 1,000, and that of RAN 1 APase was estimated to be 45,000 +/- 1,000. The largest difference between the 6160-BC6 and RAN 1 APase's was in solubility in low-ionic-strength solutions. Present results suggest that each enzyme is composed of a single polypeptide chain and that 6160-BC6 APase aggregates in solutions of low ionic strength.