An inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase (SIP-110) that binds the SH3 domains of the adaptor protein GRB2 was produced in Sf9 cells and characterized. SIP-110 binds to GRB2 in vitro with a stoichiometry of 1 mol of GRB2/0.7 mol of SIP-110. GRB2 binding does not affect enzyme activity implying that GRB2 serves mainly to localize SIP-110 within cells. SIP-110 hydrolyses inositol (Ins)(1,3,4,5)P 4 to Ins(1,3,4)P 3 . The enzyme does not hydrolyze Ins(1,4,5)P 3 that is a substrate for previously described 5-phosphatases nor does it hydrolyze phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns)(4,5)P 2 . SIP-110 also hydrolyzed PtdIns(3,4,5)P 3 to PtdIns(3,4)P 2 as did recombinant forms of two other 5-phosphatases designated as inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase II, and OCRL (the protein that is mutated in oculocerebrorenal syndrome). The inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase enzyme family now is represented by at least 9 distinct genes and includes enzymes that fall into 4 subfamilies based on their activities toward various 5-phosphatase substrates.The phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway serves as the signaling mechanism for various extracellular agonists that stimulate calcium ion mobilization, protein phosphorylation, and cell proliferation (1, 2). In response to receptor stimulation, phospholipase C hydrolyzes phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P 2 ) 1 to generate Ins(1,4,5)P 3 and diacylglycerol. Ins(1,4,5)P 3 is further converted to Ins(1,3,4,5)P 4 by the action of a 3-kinase. These two soluble inositol phosphates are involved in calcium ion mobilization, and the latter has recently also been suggested to play a role in regulation of a Ras GAP1 (3). Specific 5-phosphatase enzymes hydrolyze Ins(1,4,5)-P 3 and Ins(1,3,4,5)P 4 by converting them to Ins(1,4)P 2 and Ins(1,3,4)P 3 , respectively. These products are inactive in calcium mobilization (1, 2). The phosphatidylinositols PtdIns-(4,5)P 2 and PtdIns(3,4,5)P 3 also serve signaling functions (4). These lipids may regulate cellular secretion (5, 6) and actin assembly (7-9), and they bind various proteins containing protein tyrosine binding, SH2, and pleckstrin homology domains (10 -12). PtdIns(3,4,5)P 3 is absent or maintained at very low levels in most cells except following stimulation with agonists that activate the PtdIns 3-kinase (13-17). Since PtdIns(3,4,5)P 3 is produced after PtdIns 3-kinase activation and is not a substrate for phospholipase C enzymes, it is suggested to act as a second messenger, possibly by activating a serine/threonine kinase, c-Akt (14,18,19).There are now at least 9 distinct genes for 5-phosphatases or proteins with conserved 5-phosphatase sequences. The most recently identified of these are the 110-kDa SIP-110 (20) and the 133-kDa SHIP or . cDNAs encoding these proteins were cloned from human and mouse cDNA libraries, respectively, based on their ability to associate with the adaptor protein GRB2 (20 -22) or their homology to 5-phosphatases or their ability to form complexes with the immunoreceptorbased tyrosine activation motif of ma...