The potential hedonic role of olfaction in sexual selection and its dominance in visual cross-modal interactions.

Perfumes are commonly used to cover body odour, or to provide a positive, attracting, and interesting impact, or a smell that belongs to a social group. A role in sexual communication of such non-pheromonal olfactory cues has been suggested in the literature. However, there remain the questions whether these stimuli are involved in human chemosexual communication and, if so, at what level, and whether they interact with other sensorial modalities, in particular vision.

The SPCA1 Ca2+ pump and intracellular membrane trafficking.

The Golgi apparatus (GA) is a dynamic store of Ca(2+) that can be released into the cell cytosol. It can thus participate in the regulation of the Ca(2+) concentration in the cytosol ([Ca(2+) ](cyt) ), which might be critical for intra-Golgi transport. Secretory pathway Ca(2+) -ATPase pump type 1 (SPCA1) is important in Golgi homeostasis of Ca(2+) .

Analysis of phosphoinositides and their aqueous metabolites.

Many and various experimental techniques have been developed to fully analyze the intracellular signaling pathways of membrane phosphoinositides and their water-soluble derivatives. This chapter concentrates mainly on the range of lipid-derived, water-soluble signaling molecules that can be produced in cells from these membrane phosphoinositides, for which we and others have proposed biological roles. These include lysophosphatidylinositol, produced via phospholipase A(1/2) activities on phosphatidylinositol; cyclic inositol phosphates, produced via phosphatidylinositol/lysophosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C activities; and glycerophosphoinositols, produced via lysophospholipase A(2/1) activities on their corresponding lysophosphoinositides.

Diacylglycerolipids isolated from a thermophile cyanobacterium from the Euganean hot springs.

The Phormidium sp. ETS-05 thermophile blue-green alga is one of the most typical and widespread species of cyanobacteria of the thermal muds of the Euganean hot springs, the therapeutic properties of which have been known since ancient times. The polar diacylglycerolipids of this cyanobacterium consists of monogalactosyldiacylglycerol, digalactosyldiacylglycerol, sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol.

Selective in vivo anti-inflammatory action of the galactolipid monogalactosyldiacylglycerol.

The thermophilic blue-green alga ETS-05 colonises the therapeutic thermal muds of Abano and Montegrotto, Italy. Following the isolation, purification and identification of monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG), digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG), sulphoquinovosyldiacylglycerol (SQDG) and phosphatidylglycerol from ETS-05, we here examine their in vivo anti-inflammatory activities. MGDG, DGDG and SQDG inhibit croton-oil-induced ear oedema in the mouse in a dose-dependent manner.

Analysis of glycerophosphoinositol by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometry using a beta-cyclodextrin-bonded column.

Glycerophosphoinositol (GroPIns) has been demonstrated to have important roles in many intracellular regulatory processes. GroPIns has been analysed for many years by anion-exchange HPLC after radiolabelling of cells in culture, but no method has been developed, to our knowledge, for the direct detection and quantitation of the unlabelled compound in such biological samples. Here is reported a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the direct quantitative analysis of GroPIns that can indeed be applied to cell extracts.

Reorganization of actin cytoskeleton by the phosphoinositide metabolite glycerophosphoinositol 4-phosphate.

Glycerophosphoinositol 4-phosphate (GroPIns-4P) is a biologically active, water-soluble phospholipase A metabolite derived from phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate, whose cellular concentrations have been reported to increase in Ras-transformed cells. It is therefore important to understand its biological activities. Herein, we have examined whether GroPIns-4P can regulate the organization of the actin cytoskeleton, because this could be a Ras-related function involved in cell motility and metastatic invasion.

GDE1/MIR16 is a glycerophosphoinositol phosphodiesterase regulated by stimulation of G protein-coupled receptors.

Previously we identified MIR16 (membrane interacting protein of RGS16) as an integral membrane glycoprotein that interacts with regulator of G protein signaling proteins and shares significant sequence homology with bacterial glycerophosphodiester phosphodiesterases (GDEs), suggesting that it is a putative mammalian GDE. Here we show that MIR16 belongs to a large, evolutionarily conserved family of GDEs with a characteristic putative catalytic domain that shares a common motif (amino acids 92-116) with the catalytic domains of mammalian phosphoinositide phospholipases C. Expression of wild-type MIR16 (renamed GDE1), but not two catalytic domain mutants (E97A/D99A and H112A), leads to a dramatic increase in glycerophosphoinositol phosphodiesterase (GPI-PDE) activity in HEK 293T cells.

Endogenous mono-ADP-ribosylation of the free Gbetagamma prevents stimulation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase-gamma and phospholipase C-beta2 and is activated by G-protein-coupled receptors.

We have recently demonstrated that the beta subunit of the heterotrimeric G-proteins is endogenously mono-ADP-ribosylated in intact cells. The modified betagamma heterodimer loses its ability to inhibit calmodulin-stimulated type 1 adenylate cyclase and, remarkably, is de-ADP-ribosylated by a cytosolic hydrolase that completes an ADP-/de-ADP-ribosylation cycle of potential physiological relevance. In the present study, we show that this ADP-ribosylation might indeed be a general mechanism for termination of betagamma signalling, since the ADP-ribosylated betagamma subunit is also unable to activate both phosphoinositide 3-kinase-gamma and phospholipase C-beta2.

Biological activities and metabolism of the lysophosphoinositides and glycerophosphoinositols.

The lysophospholipids are integral components of the plasma membrane that have often been considered as side products of the phospholipase A2 (PLA2)-dependent production of arachidonic acid and the deacylation/reacylation processes involved in phospholipid homeostasis. Data indicating roles of these lipid derivatives in hormone responses and cell transformation have now led to a different view, and the understanding of their involvement in the modulation of cell function is building up. Here, we will summarise the current knowledge concerning the biological roles of the lysophosphoinositides and the glycerophosphoinositols (their fully deacylated counterparts) in the framework of their known effects, and those of the other lysophospholipids and glycerophospholipids.