Spectrophotometric and cytochemical analyses of phosphatase activity in Beta vulgaris L

Spectrophotometric and cytochemical methods were used to investigate the localization and/or the sensitivity of phosphatase activities in aldehyde-fixed beet leaves and membrane fractions. The nonspecific acid phosphatase substrates, p-nitrophenyl phosphate and beta-glycerol phosphate, each exhibited unique spectrophotometric patterns of hydrolysis as a function of pH. Additionally, beta-glycerol phosphatase activity was primarily present on the tonoplast, whereas p-nitrophenyl phosphatase was present on the plasma membrane. Because of the unique pH response of each enzyme and their different localization, we conclude that they cannot be entirely "nonspecific." The spectrophotometric pattern of ATP hydrolysis differed from that of p-nitrophenol phosphate in that it decreased at pH 5.0-5.5 and was greatly inhibited by 10 mM sodium fluoride; however, both activities were on the plasma membrane. Therefore, we conclude that these activities represent either two enzymes or only one enzyme that differs in its ability to hydrolyze these two substrates. Generally, enzymatically produced lead deposits on the plasma membrane of non-vascular cells were as frequent and large as those on phloem cells; frequently, deposits on sieve element plasma membranes were relatively small. We therefore conclude that there is no evidence for the presence of relatively intense ATPase activity on the plasma membrane of phloem cells in beet leaf, in contrast to other species. Studies with membrane fractions indicated that formaldehyde could completely inhibit the inhibitor-sensitive phosphatase activities in mitochondrial and vacuolar fractions while preserving significant activity in the plasma membrane fraction.