Detection of active sorbitol-6-phosphate phosphatase in the haloacid dehalogenase-like hydrolase superfamily.

Sorbitol-6-phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.50) catalyzes sorbitol production from sorbitol-6-phosphate in certain organisms, but has not been identified unequivocally. We screened the activity of the haloacid dehalogenase-like hydrolases (HAD) superfamily and identified four HAD proteins from Escherichia coli as sorbitol-6-phosphatase. Of these proteins, HAD2 (YfbT) exhibited catalytic activity (kcat/Km) that was better than that of the previously reported "preferred" substrate. HAD1 (YniC) and HAD2 exhibited higher sorbitol-6-phosphatase activity than that of HAD12 (YbiV) and HAD13 (YidA). Therefore, genes of HAD may be useful for metabolic engineering of effective sorbitol production.