Mammalian phospholipase D (PLD) is considered a key enzyme in the transmission signals from various receptors including muscarinic receptors. PLD activation is a rapid and transient process, but a negative regulator has not been found that inhibits signal-dependent PLD activation. Here, for the first time, we report that tubulin binding to PLD 2 is an inhibition mechanism for muscarinic receptor-linked PLD 2 activation. Tubulin was identified in an immunoprecipitated PLD 2 complex from COS-7 cells by peptide mass fingerprinting. The direct interaction between PLD 2 and tubulin was found to be mediated by a specific region of PLD 2 (amino acids 476 -612). PLD 2 was potently inhibited (IC 50 <10 nM) by tubulin binding in vitro. In cells, the interaction between PLD 2 and tubulin was increased by the microtubule disrupting agent nocodazole and reduced by the microtubule stabilizing agent Taxol. Moreover, PLD 2 activity was found to be inversely correlated with the level of monomeric tubulin. In addition, we found that interaction with and the inhibition of PLD 2 by monomeric tubulin is important for the muscarinic receptor-linked PLD signaling pathway. Interaction between PLD 2 and tubulin was increased only after 1-2 min of carbachol stimulation when carbachol-stimulated PLD 2 activity was decreased. The expression of the tubulin binding region of PLD 2 blocked the later decrease in carbachol-induced PLD activity by masking tubulin binding. Taken together, these results indicate that an increase in local membrane monomeric tubulin concentration inhibits PLD 2 activity, and provides a novel mechanism for the inhibition of muscarinic receptor-induced PLD 2 activation by interaction with tubulin.
Mammalian phospholipase D (PLD)1 hydrolyzes membrane phosphatidylcholine to generate phosphatidic acid and choline. PLD activity is dramatically activated in response to a variety of signals, including hormones, neurotransmitters, and growth factors (1). PLD products, phosphatidic acid itself or the hydrolyzed product diacylglycerol, have been known to act as intracellular lipid second messengers and to be involved in multiple physiological events, such as, the promotion of mitogenesis, stimulation of respiratory bursts, secretory processes, and actin cytoskeletal reorganization (2-7). Therefore, signal-dependent PLD activity must be tightly controlled in cells.Many reports have been issued about the mechanisms of receptor-mediated PLD activation. Although the mammalian PLD isozymes, PLD 1 and PLD 2 , have some different regulatory properties, in general, agonist-induced PLD is activated by various protein kinases, including protein kinase C, proteintyrosine kinase, and the MAP kinase family, in addition to small G proteins of the ARF, Rho, and Ras families (8 -13). The signal-dependent activation of PLD is rapid and transient. Although, the activation kinetics depend on the stimulus and cell type, the PLD signal is usually diminished within 10 min (14). However, the mechanisms involved in PLD signal inhibition remain unknow...