Experimental manipulation of phosphoinositide lipids: from cells to organisms

Phosphoinositides (PIs) have critical roles in various cellular, physiological, developmental, pathological, and infectious processes. They are signaling phospholipids that can affect every aspect of membrane biology, including protein function (e.g., recruitment and activity), membrane physicochemical properties (e.g., curvature, surface charges, and packing), and the generation of secondary messengers. PIs act at precise locations within the cell in a dose-dependent manner, and their local concentration can vary drastically during signaling and trafficking. Thus, techniques able to manipulate PI amounts acutely and with subcellular accuracy are paramount to understanding the role of these lipids in vivo. Here, we review these methods and emphasize approaches recently developed to perturb PI levels in multicellular organisms.