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Biol Bull 90: 220-233. (June 1946)
© 1946 Marine Biological Laboratory
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DISTRIBUTION AND PROPERTIES OF INTRACELLULAR ALKALINE PHOSPHATASES

EDITH JUDITH KRUGELIS 1

1 Department of Zoology, Columbia University, New York

1. Using the histochemical test for alkaline phosphatase reaction in the larval salivary glands of several species of Drosophila, activity was found to be present in three main parts of the cell; the cytoplasm, the nucleolus, and the chromosomes.

2. Phosphatase activity was found rather generally distributed in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Within the larval salivary gland chromosomes, the enzyme activity was localized in those chromosomal regions which are Feulgen positive, and thus corresponds to the regions containing large concentrations of desoxyribose nucleic acid.

3. Different naturally occurring phosphate bearing substances were used as phosphatase substrates on mouse tissues, and resulted in demonstration of three different types of phosphatase reactions based on the localization of the enzyme activity.

a) A general reaction with phosphatase activity located in both nucleus (nucleolus and chromosomes) and the cytoplasm was present when sodium glycerophosphate and nucleotides were used as substrates.

b) No phosphatase reaction occurred on polymerized desoxyribose nucleic acid, but a specific nuclear reaction (nucleolus and chromosomes) was present when nuclease-depolymerized desoxyribose nucleic acid was used as a substrate.

c) A strong cytoplasmic reaction with slight reaction in the nucleus was present when ribose nucleic acid was used as a substrate.

4. Subjection to several environmental variables produced little further evidence as to the differences among these three types of localized reactions.

5. The three types of alkaline phosphatase reactions observed were suggested to be due to at least two phosphodiesterases and a phosphomonesterase.

6. The nuclear phosphatase complex and the cytoplasmic phosphatase complex each probably consist of a specific phosphodiesterase, which splits the ester linkage between the phosphate of one nucleotide and the sugar of the neighboring nucleotide, and a phosphomonesterase which splits the second ester linkage and liberates inorganic phosphate.




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A. B. Novikoff
The Validity of Histochemical Phosphatase Methods on the Intracellular Level
Science, March 23, 1951; 113(2934): 320 - 325.
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