[1] The crystallization of phosphoglycolate phosphatase from Thermoplasma acidophilum revealed 5 active sites indicated by the blue spheres in the image.

An interaction with the cofactor, Mg2+, helps polarize the phosphate-oxygen bond and therefore increases the electrophilicity of the phosphorus atom.

strain PCC 6803 implicates that cyanobacteria were not only the evolutionary origin of oxygenic photosynthesis but also ancient photorespiratory phosphoglycolate metabolism, which might have been conveyed endosymbiotically to plants.

In addition, Ca2+, despite being divalent, inhibits phosphoglycolate phosphatase on levels of greater than 90% of its enzymatic activity by acting as a competitive inhibitor to Mg2+.

The study concluded that the mutant phenotype arose from a phosphoglycolate phosphatase deficiency caused by a single-gene, nuclear mutation, which they subsequently named pgp1.

Ensuing studies 20 years after the identification of the same mutant strain of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii found that the conditional lethal phenotype was no longer present despite the continued presence of the splice mutation of pgp1.

[11] Partial purification analysis has shown that human erythrocytes contain phosphoglycolate phosphatase as a cytoplasmic dimeric enzyme with molecular weight of 72,000.

[12] However, it has shown that though the enzyme requires both free Mg2+ and phosphoglycolate, the Mg2+-phosphoglycolate complex has inhibitory effects on enzymatic activity.

Found in all human tissues, including red cells, lymphocytes, and cultured fibroblasts, the highest enzymatic activity was noted within skeletal and cardiac muscle.

Research into the genetic polymorphism indicates that PGP is likely determined by three alleles at a single autosomal locus, which is expressed in all human tissues.

Preliminary observations of fetal tissue suggest that the PGP locus is also fully expressed during intrauterine life.

Initial research has also shown appreciable genetic variation indicated by the detection of 6 phenotypes within a small European population.