Glucose-6-phosphatase: is activity regulated by phosphorylation–dephosphorylation?

Abstract

Incubation of rat liver microsomes with ATP and Mg2+ in the absence or presence of an exogenous protein kinase showed no changes in the activity of glucose-6-phosphatase (D-glucose-6-phosphate phosphohydrolase, EC 3.1.3.9). These observations confirm the recent findings of the Burchells and colleagues and refute on methodological grounds the earlier conclusions of Begley and Craft implicating regulation of this enzyme by protein phosphorylation–dephosphorylation. In other studies, the time-dependent inactivation of microsomal glucose-6-phosphatase by incubation with deoxycholate was used to obtain the inactive enzyme which in the presence of a protein kinase, ATP, and Mg2+ could not be restored to its original level. A number of substrates and competitive inhibitors of glucose-6-phosphatase, most notably vanadate which is the most potent inhibitor of the enzyme identified, stabilized this enzyme against its time-dependent inactivation in the presence of detergent as effectively as did fluoride and molybdate which are also effective competitive inhibitors of glucose-6-phosphatase. An alternative explanation to the involvement of a phosphoprotein phosphatase, as discussed by the Burchells, in the time-dependent inactivation of glucose-6-phosphatase is thus suggested.