Measurement and Molecular Detection of Acid Phosphatase Enzyme in Moraxella catarrhalis

Abstract

Acid phosphatase is one of the most important autotransporter in Moraxella catarrhalis . So Moraxella catarrhalis isolates were undergone to produce extracellular acid phosphatase enzyme in the presence and absence of its own substrate (p-nitrophenyle phosphate) at two pH conditions (pH 6.0 & pH 7.0). It was shown that acid phosphatase was produced in the presence and also in the absence of substrate but the highest activity was observed at pH 7.0 in the presence of the substrate ,this will give an indicator that this enzyme is produced constitutively and inducibly. The mapA gene is one of essential encoding gene for the production of acid phosphatase. This gene was detected by specific PCR primer. The results showed that only 3 of M. catarrhalis isolates had positive result for this gene where as the rest did not posses it.