Cloning, sequencing, and chromosomal localization of human term placental alkaline phosphatase cDNA.

A human term (third trimester) placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP; EC 3.1.3.1) cDNA was isolated from a human placental lambda gt11 cDNA library. The expression library was screened by using rabbit antibodies against PLAP and oligonucleotide probes. DNA sequence analysis of a positive clone with an insert of 2.7 kilobase pairs allowed us to predict the complete amino acid sequence of PLAP (530 residues), which coincided with the reported 42 N-terminal amino acid sequence of PLAP except at position 3. Contrary to the previous supposition that there was no amino acid sequence homology between PLAP and Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase (471 residues), we found 30% overall homology, with regions of strong homology including the putative active site and the metal-binding sites. The 44-residue C-terminal extension of PLAP has a stretch of 17 hydrophobic amino acids, which presumably anchors the protein to the plasma membrane, a change perhaps necessary for the transition from a bacterial periplasmic enzyme to a mammalian membrane-associated enzyme. We have also localized PLAP-related DNA sequences mainly on chromosome 2 and to a lesser degree on chromosome 17. It seems likely therefore that the PLAP gene resides on chromosome 2 and other member(s) of the alkaline phosphatase family may exist (on this chromosome and) on chromosome 17.