Phospholipase D activity in the Tetrahymena pyriformis GL

Phospholipase D (PLD) is an enzyme which participates in the signaling mechanism cleaving phosphatidylcholine (PC) to choline and phosphatidic acid (PA). In Tetrahymena pyriformis GL this enzyme activity is enhanced by different kinds of agonists (sodium orthovanadate, sodium fluoride and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate), and its activity can be inhibited by inhibitors such as pertussis toxin, calphostin C, genistein, trifluoperazine. These results suggest that the PLD signalling pathway is connected with the tyrosine kinase, phospholipase C, phosphatidylinositol and G-protein coupled signalling pathways. By demonstrating the PLD activity in Tetrahymena our knowledge on the signaling mechanisms at a unicellular level has been extended. The results support our view that most transducing mechanisms that are characteristic of mammalian cells are also in the protozoan Tetrahymena.