Cloning of phosphatase I gene from a psychrophile, Shewanella sp., and some properties of the recombinant enzyme

Psychrophilic phosphatase I from Shewanella sp. is a cold enzyme that was found as a novel protein-tyrosine-phosphatase (PTPase, EC 3.1.3.48) with a histidine as its catalytic residue [Tsuruta and Aizono (1999) J. Biochem. 125, 690-695]. Here, we determined the nucleotide sequence of a DNA fragment (2,004 bp) containing the phosphatase I gene by cloning with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and inverted PCR techniques. The deduced amino acid sequence, of the enzyme contained a conserved region of protein-serine/threonine-phosphatase (PPase). The 38.5 kDa-recombinant protein expressed in Escherichia coli was purified to homogeneity by glutathione-Sepharose 4B column chromatography, treatment with endoproteinase and Mono-Q column chromatography. The recombinant enzyme had a specific activity of 49.4 units and, like native psychrophilic phosphatase I, exhibited high catalytic activity at low temperature and PTPase activity.