Alkaline phosphatase (ALP, ALKP, ALPase, Alk Phos) is a hydrolase enzyme responsible for removing phosphate groups from many types of molecules, including nucleotides, proteins, and alkaloids. The process of removing the phosphate group is called dephosphorylation. As the name suggests, alkaline phosphatases are most effective in an alkaline environment. It is sometimes used synonymously as basic phosphatase. Typical use in the lab for alkaline phosphatases includes removing phosphate monoester to prevent self-ligation, which is undesirable during plasmid DNA cloning.