Degradation of sulphur nucleotides in cell‐free extracts of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans

The cell‐free extracts of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans contain hydrolytic enzymes which cleave sulphate from either adenosine 5′‐sulphatophosphate or adenosine 3′‐phosphate 5′‐sulphatophosphate. These sulphatase activities may be retarded by including either phosphates or adenine nucleotides in the incubation mixtures. Adenosine 3′‐phosphate 5′‐sulphatophosphate and its immediate breakdown product adenosine 3′‐phosphate 5′‐phosphate were degraded at slower rates than adenosine 5′‐sulphatophosphate.