Interaction of vanadate with phenol and tyrosine: implications for the effects of vanadate on systems regulated by tyrosine phosphorylation.

The interaction of vanadate with phenol and N-acetyltyrosine ethyl ester in aqueous solution has been studied by using 51V nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. On the basis of these studies, it has been concluded that vanadate rapidly esterifies the hydroxyl group of the aromatic ring to yield a phenyl vanadate. For phenol, the equilibrium constant for this reaction in terms of the convention that the activity of liquid water is 1.0 is K1 = [phenyl vanadate]/[phenol][vanadate] = 0.97 +/- 0.02. This value is well over 4 orders of magnitude larger than estimates from the literature for the corresponding equilibrium constant for the esterification of phenol by phosphate. The equilibrium constant for esterification of the phenol moiety of N-acetyltyrosine ethyl ester is similar to that for esterification of phenol. The relevance of these observations to processes that are regulated by reversible phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of tyrosine residues is discussed, in particular the insulin-like effect of vanadate.