It has now been established that agonist stimulation of a large variety of cell-surface receptors promotes hydrolysis of inositol phospholipids through activation of a phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (
1 ,
2 ). Phosphodiesteric cleavage of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bis-phosphate by phospholipase C produces Ins(1,4,5)P
3 and sn-1,2-diacylglycerol, which release Ca
2+ from intracellular stores and activate protein kinase(s) C, respectively (
1 –
4 ). Metabolism of Ins(1,4,5)P
3 is rapid and can follow two possible pathways (Fig. 1 .; for review,
see ref.
4 ). The simple dephosphory lation route proceeds via a 5-phosphatase to Ins(1,4)P
2 , and Ins(1,3,4)P
3 /Ins(1,4)P
2 1-phosphatase to Ins(4)P
1 . Alternatively, phosphorylation of Ins(1,4,5)P
3 by a 3-kinase generates the putative second messenger Ins(1,3,4,5)P
4 , which then undergoes sequential dephosphorylation via a 5-phosphatase to Ins(1,3,4)P
3 and either a 4-phosphatase, an Ins(1,3,4)P
3 /Ins(1,4)P
2 1-phosphatase, or a 6-kinase route to produce Ins(1,3)P
2 , Ins(3,4)P
2 , or Ins(1,3,4,6)P
4 , respectively. Subsequent dephosphorylation of Ins(1,3)P
2 and Ins(3,4)P
2 produces Ins(l)P
1 and Ins(3)P
1 , which, along with Ins(4)P
1 , are metabolized by the inositol monophosphatase to release myo-inositol (
4 ). This complex pathway of Ins(1,4,5)P
3 , serves to terminate second-messenger action and to conserve efficiently the cellular myo-inositol pool for the resynthesis of inositol phospholipids. Fig. 1 . The phosphoinositide cycle.
Fig. 1. The phosphoinositide cycle.