Partial Purification and Characterization of Thermostable Acid Phosphatase from Thermoacidophilic Archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius

Thermostable acid phosphatase (APase) from thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius was isolated, partially purified, and characterized. The optimum pH and temperature of the enzyme for p-nitrophenylphosphate (pNPP) as a substrate were 5.0 and 70°C, respectively. The apparent K _m value was 1.9 mM. This APase showed a native molecular mass of 20 kDa on a gel filtration chromatography. Of the APase activity, 60% remained after 60 min of heat treatment at 75°C. To confirm whether the APase is active in the monomeric form, we attempted to elute the enzyme from SDS-polyacrylamide gels with Disk electrophoresis apparatus and renature the enzyme. The APase activity was recovered up to 50% in the 14- to 35-kDa range, and maximum around 25 kDa. These results suggest that this APase is monomeric protein. Received: 8 July 1999 / Accepted: 9 August 1999