Sucrose phosphatase associated with vacuole preparations from red beet, sugar beet, and immature sugarcane stem

The specific phosphatase, sucrose phosphate phosphohydrolase (sucrose phosphatase, EC 3.1.3.24) was present in vacuole preparations from storage tissue of red beet (Beta vulgaris L.), sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L. cultivar Kawemono), and immature sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid, cultivar NCO 310). In red beet vacuole preparations the specific activity of sucrose phosphatase, using the naturally occurring vacuole marker, betanin, as reference, was higher than the specific activity of cytoplasmic markers, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, suggesting that sucrose phosphatase is associated with the vacuoles. High speed centrifugation of lysed vacuoles did not result in precipitation of the enzyme indicating that the enzyme is not tightly bound to the tonoplast. Sucrose phosphatase was more sensitive to inhibition by sodium vanadate and less sensitive to ammonium molybdate than was the nonspecific phosphatase which was also present in the extracts. Sucrose phosphatase might be part of the group translocator proposed recently to operate in the tonoplast of sugarcane and red beet.