PLC-δ1-Lf, a novel N-terminal extended phospholipase C-δ1

Phospholipase C-δ (PLC-δ), a key enzyme in phosphoinositide turnover, is involved in a variety of physiological functions. The widely expressed PLC-δ1 isoform is the best characterized and the most well understood phospholipase family member. However, the functional and molecular mechanisms of PLC-δ1 remain obscure. Here, we identified that the N-terminal region of mouse PLC-δ1 gene has two variants, a novel alternative splicing form, named as long form (mPLC-δ1-Lf) and the previously reported short form (mPLC-δ1-Sf), having exon 2 and exon 1, respectively, while both the gene variants share exons 3-16 for RNA transcription. Furthermore, the expression, identification and enzymatic characterization of the two types of PLC-δ1 genes were compared. Expression of mPLC-δ1-Lf was found to be tissue specific, whereas mPLC-δ1-Sf was widely distributed. The recombinant mPLC-δ1-Sf protein exhibited higher activity than recombinant mPLC-δ1-Lf protein. Although, the general catalytic and regulatory properties of mPLC-δ1-Lf are similar to those of PLC-δ1-Sf isozyme, the mPLC-δ1-Lf showed some distinct regulatory properties, such as tissue-specific expression and lipid binding specificity, particularly for phosphatidylserine.