Two enzymes capable of hydrolyzing fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP) have been isolated from the foliose lichen Peltigera rufescens (Weis) Mudd. These enzymes can be separated using Sephadex G-100 and DEAE Sephacel chromatography. One enzyme has a pH optimum of 6.5, and a substrate affinity of 228 micromolar FBP. This enzyme does not require MgCI2 for activity, and is inhibited by AMP. The second enzyme has a pH optimum of 9.0, with no activity below pH 7.5. This enzyme responds sigmoidally to Mg2", with half-saturation concentration of 2.0 millimolar MgCI2, and demonstrates hyperbolic kinetics for FBP (K. = 39 micromolar). This enzyme is activated by 20 millimolar dithiothreitol, is inhibited by AMP, but is not affected by fructose-2-6-bisphosphate. It is hypothesized that the latter enzyme is involved in the photosynthetic process, while the former enzyme is a nonspecific acid phosphatase.FBPase2 (EC 3.1.3.11) is an important enzyme of carbon metabolism, involved in gluconeogenesis, the pentose phosphate cycle and photosynthesis. As a result, three forms of this enzyme are usually present in most plants (15,17,28), distinguishable by their compartmentation, regulatory properties and their response to differing pH and ionic environments. One FBPase acts as a Mg2+-independent acid phosphatase (17,20), while the other two are Mg2+-dependant alkaline phosphatases. Ofthe latter two, the cytosolic FBPase is inhibited by AMP, F-2,6-P, and high concentrations of FBP (8, 13,30). The photosynthetic enzyme is not inhibited by these compounds, but it is activated by thioredoxin or DTT (4,5,23,29 2-mercaptoethanol, and 20 mm sodium metabisulfite, adjusted to pH 6.6) (10 ml g-' dry weight) and insoluble PVP (0.5 g-g-' dry weight) were added to the drained thalli and this was ground with a mortar and pestle. The slurry was further processed for 20 min with a motorized tissue homogenizer. The resulting suspension was sonicated for a total of 20 min, and then centrifuged in a swinging bucket rotor on a Beckman TJ 6 refrigerated centrifuge for 20 min at 1500g. The supernatant was reserved and the pellet was resuspended in approximately 300 ml of the extraction buffer, then resonicated and again centrifuged. The supernatants were combined and the final pellet discarded.FBPase Purification. The enzyme was purified using a modification of the method of Buchanan et al. (4). The crude extract was acidified to pH 4.5 by the addition of 1.0 M acetic acid. The precipitate formed was collected by centrifugation (I 500g for 30 min) and resuspended in 150 ml of the extraction buffer. (NH4)2SO4 was added to 40% of saturation. This solution was centrifuged in a Sorval RC 2B centrifuge at 20,000g for 15 min. The pellet was discarded and the supernatant was brought up to 80% of saturation with additional (NH4)2SO4. This was centrifuged as above, the supernatant was discarded, and the pellet was resuspended in 15 ml of extraction buffer. This was chromatographed on a 75 x 2.5 cm column ofSephadex G-100 (previously equilibrated with the...