Purple acid phosphatases comprise a family of binuclear metal-containing acid hydrolases, representatives of which have been found in animals, plants, and fungi. The goal of this study was to characterize purple acid phosphatases from sweet potato tubers and soybean seeds and to establish their relationship with the only well-characterized plant purple acid phosphatase, the FeIII-ZnII-containin...

We present high-resolution UES spectra of the quasar PHL 957 obtained for studying the foreground Damped Lyα galaxy at z=2.309. Measurements of absorption lines lead to accurate abundance determinations of Fe, S and N which complement measurements of Zn, Cr and Ni already available for this system. We find [Fe/H]=−2.0± 0.1, [S/H]=−1.54± 0.06 and [N/H]=−2.76± 0.07. The ratio [Fe/Zn]=−0.44 provid...