Physiological aspects of alkaline phosphatase in selected cyanobacteria

The alkaline phosphatase of Plectonema boryanum shows a considerable increase in activity following placement of the cells in a phosphate free medium. Five days of phosphate starvation result in a 14-fold increase of alkaline phosphatase activity. Growth in the presence of inhibitors of transcription and translation indicate that the synthesis of the enzyme is de novo. Orthophosphate causes an immediate inhibition of enzyme activity. Enzyme was extracted from P. boryanum with lysozyme or polymyxin B treatment in order to make comparative studies of cell bound and cell free enzyme. Of several enzyme specific inhibitors tested, mercuric chloride was the most effective. Temperature studies showed that the cell bound enzyme was most active at 40 degrees C while the cell free enzyme was most active at 70 degrees C. The pH optimum was 9 for the cell free enzyme, and 8.8 for the cell bound. The enzyme was tested to determine if it could hydrolyse a number of different organic compounds. It hydrolysed p-nitrophenol phosphate 100%, fructose-6-phosphate 45%, beta-glycerol phosphate 25% and other compounds to a lesser degree. Of seventeen other Cyanobacteria tested for alkaline phosphatase, all were positive, and of these eleven were inducible for the enzyme. Ten of the isolates released some of the enzyme into the culture medium. Michaelis constants for the enzyme were also determined.