1. to remove a phosphate group or phosphate groups from a molecule, especially a protein
Usage: technical; biochemistry

Examples

• The enzyme phosphatase will dephosphorylate the protein, reversing the earlier modification.
• Researchers dephosphorylated the sample to study the protein's unmodified state.
• The cell uses specific enzymes to dephosphorylate signaling proteins when the signal is no longer needed.
• To dephosphorylate the substrate, they added the appropriate phosphatase to the reaction mixture.
• The mutation prevented the kinase from phosphorylating the target, though the phosphatase could still dephosphorylate it.