Biochemical evidence for membrane-bound endoderm-specific alkaline phosphatase in larvae of the ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi

An endoderm-specific alkaline phosphatase with a molecular mass of 86 kDa has been found in tadpole larvae of the ascidian, Halocynthia roretzi. The histochemical staining of sections of the larvae revealed that the enzyme is a membrane-associated protein. Two distinct bands were detected by zymographic technique on SDS/PAGE of the membrane preparation of the larvae. The two enzymes can be solubilized from the membrane preparation by sodium cholate and separated from each other by Cibacron blue-3GA affinity chromatography The 86-kDa enzyme is likely to be the endoderm-specific one because the susceptibilities to alkaline phosphatase inhibitors coincide between the 86-kDa enzyme and that found in the endoderm of larvae by histochemical staining. The endoderm-specific alkaline phosphatase was purified and its N-terminal amino acid sequence was found to show little similarity to those of other proteins.