We have investigated the enzymatic phosphorylation of nucleosides and found that Morganella morganii phoC acid phosphatase exhibits regioselective pyrophosphate (PP(i))-nucleoside phosphotransferase activity. In this study, we isolated genes encoding an acid phosphatase with regioselective phosphotransferase activity (AP/PTase) from Providencia stuartii, Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia blattae and Klebsiella planticola, and compared the primary structures and enzymatic characteristics of these enzymes with those of AP/PTase (PhoC acid phosphatase) from M. morganii. The enzymes were highly homologous in primary structure with M. morganii AP/PTase, and are classified as class A1 acid phosphatases. The synthesis of inosine-5'-monophosphate (5'-IMP) by E. coli overproducing each acid phosphatase was investigated. The P. stuartii enzyme, which is most closely related to the M. morganii enzyme, exhibited high 5'-IMP productivity, similar to the M. morganii enzyme. The 5'-IMP productivities of the E. aerogenes, E. blattae and K. planticola enzymes were inferior to those of the former two enzymes. This result underlines the importance of lower K(m) values for efficient nucleotide production. As these enzymes exhibited a very high degree of homology at the amino acid sequence level, it is likely that local sequence differences in the binding pocket are responsible for the differences in the nucleoside-PP(i) phosphotransferase reaction.