Mh. Le Du et al., Crystal structure of alkaline phosphatase from human placenta at 1.8 A resolution - Implication for a substrate specificity, J BIOL CHEM, 276(12), 2001, pp. 9158-9165
Human placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP) is one of three tissue-specific
human APs extensively studied because of its ectopic expression in tumors.
The crystal structure, determined at 1.8-Angstrom resolution, reveals that
during evolution, only the overall features of the enzyme have been conser
ved with respect to Escherichia coli. The surface is deeply mutated with 8%
residues in common, and in the active site, only residues strictly necessa
ry to perform the catalysis have been preserved. Additional structural elem
ents aid an understanding of the allosteric property that is specific for t
he mammalian enzyme (Hoylaerts, M. F., Manes, T., and Millan, J. L. (1997)
J. Biol. Chem. 272, 22781-22787). Allostery is probably favored by the qual
ity of the dimer interface, by a long N-terminal alpha -helix from one mono
mer that embraces the other one, and similarly by the exchange of a residue
from one monomer in the active site of the other. In the neighborhood of t
he catalytic serine, the orientation of Glu-429, a residue unique to PLAP,
and the presence of a hydrophobic pocket close to the phosphate product, ac
count for the specific uncompetitive inhibition of PLAP by L-amino acids, c
onsistent with the acquisition of substrate specificity. The location of th
e active site at the bottom of a large valley flanked by an interfacial cro
wn-shaped domain and a domain containing an extra metal ion on the other si
de suggest that the substrate of PLAP could be a specific phosphorylated pr
otein.