Phosphatase

A ball and stick model of a phosphate anion.

In biochemistry, a phosphatase is an enzyme that uses water to cleave a phosphoric acid monoester into a phosphate ion and an alcohol. Because a phosphatase enzyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of its substrate, it is a subcategory of hydrolases.[1] Phosphatase enzymes are essential to many biological functions, because phosphorylation (e.g. by protein kinases) and dephosphorylation (by phosphatases) serve diverse roles in cellular regulation and signaling.[2] Whereas phosphatases remove phosphate groups from molecules, kinases catalyze the transfer of phosphate groups to molecules from ATP. Together, kinases and phosphatases direct a form of post-translational modification that is essential to the cell's regulatory network.[3]

Phosphatase enzymes are not to be confused with phosphorylase enzymes, which catalyze the transfer of a phosphate group from hydrogen phosphate to an acceptor. Due to their prevalence in cellular regulation, phosphatases are an area of interest for pharmaceutical research.[4][5]

  1. ^ "ENZYME: 3.1.3.-". enzyme.expasy.org. Retrieved 2017-02-21.
  2. ^ Liberti, Susanna; Sacco, Francesca; Calderone, Alberto; Perfetto, Livia; Iannuccelli, Marta; Panni, Simona; Santonico, Elena; Palma, Anita; Nardozza, Aurelio P. (2013-01-01). "HuPho: the human phosphatase portal" (PDF). FEBS Journal. 280 (2): 379–387. doi:10.1111/j.1742-4658.2012.08712.x. PMID 22804825.
  3. ^ Sacco, Francesca; Perfetto, Livia; Castagnoli, Luisa; Cesareni, Gianni (2012-08-14). "The human phosphatase interactome: An intricate family portrait". FEBS Letters. 586 (17): 2732–2739. doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2012.05.008. PMC 3437441. PMID 22626554.
  4. ^ Li, Xun; Wilmanns, Matthias; Thornton, Janet; Köhn, Maja (2013-05-14). "Elucidating Human Phosphatase-Substrate Networks". Science Signaling. 6 (275): rs10. doi:10.1126/scisignal.2003203. PMID 23674824. S2CID 19282957.
  5. ^ Bodenmiller, Bernd; Wanka, Stefanie; Kraft, Claudine; Urban, Jörg; Campbell, David; Pedrioli, Patrick G.; Gerrits, Bertran; Picotti, Paola; Lam, Henry (2010-12-21). "Phosphoproteomic Analysis Reveals Interconnected System-Wide Responses to Perturbations of Kinases and Phosphatases in Yeast". Science Signaling. 3 (153): rs4. doi:10.1126/scisignal.2001182. PMC 3072779. PMID 21177495.