Functional analysis of the extended N-terminal region in PLC-δ1 (MlPLC-δ1) from the mud loach, Misgurnus mizolepis.

Mud loach phospholipase C-δ1 (MlPLC-δ1) contains all the characteristic domains found in mammalian PLC-δ isozymes (pleckstrin homology domain, EF-hands, X–Y catalytic region, and C2 domain) as well as an extended 26-amino acid (aa)-long N-terminal region that is an alternative splice form of PLC-δ1 and is novel to vertebrate PLC-δ. In the present structure-function analysis, deletion of the extended N-terminal region caused complete loss of phosphatidylinositol (PI)- and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2)-hydrolyzing activity in MlPLC-δ1. Additionally, recombinant full-length MlPLC-δ1 PLC activity was reduced in a dose-dependent manner by coincubation with the 26-aa protein fragment. Using a protein-lipid overlay assay, both full-length MlPLC-δ1 and the 26-aa protein fragment had substantial affinity for PIP2, whereas deletion of the 26-aa region from MlPLC-δ1 (MlPLC-δ1-deletion) resulted in lower affinity for PIP2. These results suggest that the novel N-terminal exon of MlPLC-δ1 could play an important role in the regulation of PLC-δ1.