Studies on in activation and reactivation of homogeneous rabbit liver phosphoprotein phosphatases by inorganic pyorphosphate and divalent cations.

Preincubation of two homogeneous rabbit liver phosphoprotein phosphatases (phosphophoprotein phosphohydrolases, EC 3.1.3.16) (Khandelwal, R.L., Vandenheede, J.R. and Krebs, E.G. (1976) J. Biol. Chem. 251, 4850-4858) with ATP, ADP and PPi caused a time- and concentration-dependent inactivation of the enzyme activity. A 50% inactivation of phosphoprotein phosphatase I required relatively low concentration of inactivating metabolite and less preincubation time as compared to the inactivation of phosphoprotein phosphatase II. AMP, adenosine, adenine, Pi, EDTA, EGTA, 1,10-phenanthroline and diethyl dithiocarbamate were without effect on both enzymes. Pretreatment of both enzymes by metal-chelating agents followed by PPi did not augment the effect observed with PPi alone. Both inactivated enzymes could be reactivated by cobalt or manganese in the presence of dithiothreitol. Although the extent of reactivation by these two metal ions was almost similar, cobalt required a ten times lower concentration than manganese for this process. No difference in inactivation or reactivation of both enzymes was observed with different substrates, phosphorylase a, histone or casein, employed in the assay. Pi and PPi added during the assay inhibited activities of both phosphatases with phosphorylase a and casein substrates. With histone as substrate, PPi slightly inhibited enzyme activities at lower concentrations (0.01-0.25 mM) but activated at higher concentrations. Pi activated both enzymes with this substrate; maximal activation being observed at a concentration of 5 mM.