In animal cells, phosphoinositides are key components of the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate/diacylglycerolbased signaling pathway, but also have many other cellular functions. These lipids are also believed to fulfill similar functions in plant cells, although many details concerning the components of a plant phosphoinositide system, and their regulation are still missing. Only recently have the different phosphoinositide isomers been unambiguously identified in plant cells. Another problem that hinders the study of the function of phosphoinositides and their derivatives, as well as the regulation of their metabolism, in plant cells is the need for a homogenous, easily obtainable material, from which the extraction and purification of phospholipids is relatively easy and quantitatively reproducible. We present here a thorough characterization of the phospholipids purified from [ 32 P]orthophosphate-and myo-[2-3 H]inositol-radiolabeled Arabidopsis thaliana suspension-cultured cells. We then show that NaCl treatment induces dramatic increases in the levels of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate and diacylglycerol pyrophosphate and also affects the turnover of phosphatidylcholine. The increase in phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate was also observed with a non-ionic hyperosmotic shock. In contrast, the increase in diacylglycerol pyrophosphate and the turnover of phosphatidylcholine were relatively specific to salt treatments as only minor changes in the metabolism of these two phospholipids were detected when the cells were treated with sorbitol instead of NaCl.Phosphoinositides are quantitatively minor phospholipids that play an important role in the transduction of physiological signals, such as hormones, growth factors, and neurotransmitters in animal cells (1). One of the key early events triggered by these physiological stimuli is the activation of phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC), 1 resulting in the hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P 2 ) to the two second messengers, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (Ins(1,4,5)P 3 ) and diacylglycerol, which induce Ca 2ϩ release from internal stores and stimulate protein kinase C, respectively (1, 2). During the last decade, it has become evident that in addition to serving as precursors to Ins(1,4,5)P 3 and diacylglycerol, phosphoinositides actively participate in other cellular functions: they have been shown to regulate the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton through the interaction with actin-binding proteins (3, 4), and to potentiate the activation of protein kinase C (5) and PI-PLC (6, 7). In addition, phosphoinositides phosphorylated at the D 3 -hydroxy group of the inositol headgroup are required for specific vesicle trafficking steps (8, 9) and are able to activate the recently identified novel protein kinases Akt/PKB and phosphoinositide-dependent kinases (10). Recently, a new 3-phosphorylated phosphoinositide, phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(3,5)P 2 ), was identified and shown to accumulate in yeast cells ...