Advances in Enzyme Research, 2015, 3, 39-51 Published Online June 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/aer http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aer.2015.32005 How to cite this paper: Tazisong, I.A, Senwo, Z.N. and He, Z.Q. (2015) Phosphatase Hydrolysis of Organic Phosphorus Compounds. Advances in Enzyme Research, 3, 39-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aer.2015.32005 Phosphatase Hydrolysis of Organic Phosphorus Compounds Irenus A. Tazisong 1* , Zachary N. Senwo 1 , Zhongqi He 2 1 Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences, Alabama A&M University, Normal, AL, USA 2 USDA-ARS Southern Regional Research Center, New Orleans, LA, USA Email: * irenus.tazisong@aamu.edu , zachary.senwo@aamu.edu , zhongqi.he@ars.usda.gov Received 31 March 2015; accepted 19 June 2015; published 24 June 2015 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Phosphatases are diverse groups of enzymes that deserve special attention because of their sig- nificant roles in organic phosphorus (OP) mineralization to inorganic available forms (Pi). This work 1) compared the catalytic potentials of commercially acid phosphatase from wheat germ, sweet potato, and potato, and alkaline phosphatase from E. coli; 2) demonstrated that the rate of hydrolysis, catalytic efficiency, thermal stability, and optimal pH of these enzymes depended on enzyme sources and the stereochemical or stereoisomeric structures of the substrates; 3) re- vealed that both acid and alkaline phosphatases exhibited broad range of substrate hydrolysis with high affinity for p-nitrophenyl phosphate bis (cyclohexylammonium) than the widely used p-nitrophenyl phosphate disodium hexahydrate for phosphatase assay. Sweet potato had rela- tively higher reaction kinetics (Vmax , K m , K cat , K cat /K m ) values with most substrates tested. The or- der of catalytic activity was in the order: sweet potato > wheat germ > potato, while the order of substrate hydrolyzed was: PNPBC > PNP > PNP2A2E > DG6P2Na > DG6PNa > Bis-PNP > phytate. The optimum pH for the acid phosphatase was observed to be 5.0. Generally, the activity of alka- line phosphatase was similar to that of acid phosphatase with optimal pH between 10 and 13, de- pending on the substrates. Knowledge derived from this work would be helpful in enzyme cataly- sis in soils and water environments. Keywords Enzymes, Phosphatases, Organic Phosphorus Mineralization, Wheat Germ, Sweet Potato, E. coli 1. Introduction Phosphatases are diverse groups of enzymes that deserve special attention because of their significant roles in * Corresponding author.