Inositol-containing lipids: roles in cellular signalling

Abstract

Inositol-containing lipids belong to a large and heterogeneous family of lipids. The enormous interest in phosphoinositides over the past 20 years is due primarily to the findings that these lipids play key roles in a vast array of cell signalling events in eukaryotic cells. Several Fab1, YOTB/ZK632.12, Vac1, EEA1-domain proteins have been identified in plant cells and have, on the basis of domain structure and amino acid sequence homology, been tentatively been divided into three groups. The potential involvement of TMVrs in disease resistance signalling is emphasised by the presence of a NB-ARC domain, which is a motif shared by many plant resistance gene products and regulators of cell death in animals. The PH-domain is a protein module of around 120 amino acids, which is found in many proteins involved in intracellular signalling and cytoskeletal organisation. The PH-domain(s) is often found alongside other domains that participate in inter-molecular interactions.