Degradation of sulphur nucleotides in cell-free extracts of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans.

The cell-free extracts of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans contain hydrolytic enzymes which cleave sulphate from either adenosine 5'-sulphatophosphate or adenosine 3'-phosphate 5'-sulphatophosphate. These sulphatase activities may be retarded by including either phosphates or adenine nucleotides in the incubation mixtures. Adenosine 3'-phosphate 5'-sulphatophosphate and its immediate breakdown product adenosine 3'-phosphate 5'-phosphate were degraded at slower rates than adenosine 5'-sulphatophosphate.