Synthesis of phosphatides in isolated mitochondria.

Previous studies (1) have indicated that a-GP’ is an important intermediate in the incorporation of radioactive inorganic phosphate into a phosphatide fraction of rat liver. The dependence of the incorporation on oxidative phosphorylation and the marked stimulation by the addition of free glycerol suggested that the first stages in this reaction sequence were the conversion of radioactive orthophosphate to ATP by oxidative phosphorylation and the subsequent phosphorylation of glycerol by the radioactive ATP so generated. Evidence in support of this reaction sequence will be presented in this paper, in which will be described the purification and properties of an enzyme from rat liver which catalyzes the following reaction.