Isolation and Distribution of Phosphoglycolate Phosphatase.

A phosphatase specific for P-glycolate5 was purified from extracts of tobacco leaves until no other phosphatase activity could be demonstrated in the preparation (10). Other plants have now been examined for the presence of this phosphatase. A new isolation procedure for the enzyme was developed because the (NH4) 2SO4 fractionation procedure, which was used with tobacco leaf extracts, inactivated the enzyme when applied with most other tissue. The enzyme has been found in green leaves but not in roots or etiolated leaves. P-glycolate phosphatase is of interest because Pglycolate and glycolate are labeled rapidly during photosynthesis with C14 0, (1,2,3,11). Also glycolate rapidly appears outside of isolated chloroplasts during photosynthesis (3), and thus the phosphatase may be a part of a chloroplast permease system. If this were possible then the phosphatase should be either a part of the chloroplast or closely associated with the chloroplast in vivo. Data will be presented with isolated chloroplast which support these suggestions.