ABSTRACT
In all cases of microbial sulfatases that have been studied, activity is directed towards sulfated molecules of relatively small size, so that desulfation of polymers such as the glycosaminoglycan sulfates must be preceded by at least one depolymerization step. In view of the situation with carbohydrate polymers, it is pertinent to ask whether an analogous degradation sequence must operate with sulfated polypeptides such as the fibrinogens of many species. Knowledge of the cellular localization of the known sulfatase enzymes is still woefully inadequate and has mainly been based either on osmotic shock and lysozyme-EDTA treatments or on indirect evidence obtained during purification and other procedures. An adequate understanding of the involvement of sulfatases in the recycling of sulfur is clearly a long way off and it is high time that there was some switch of emphasis away from arylsulfatases and their substrates.
