Inositol tris- and polyphosphate formation during chemotaxis of Dictyostelium.

Using the technique of HPLC with Partisil SAX columns, we have found that stimulation of amoebae of Dictyostelium discoideum with the chemoattractant cyclic AMP induces the rapid accumulation of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (Ins(1,4,5)P3), with a peak at 5 s. A smaller HPLC peak (designated P3) that elutes just after the Ins(1,4,5)P3 peak accumulates more slowly to a maximum at 20 s. In control studies, the changes in Ins(1,4,5)P3 were shown not to be due to varying recovery from the cell extracts and a comparison of reverse-phase and Partisil SAX HPLC columns showed similar values for determinations by either method. The involvement of a G-protein in this chemotactic system was confirmed by the finding that accumulation of Ins(1,4,5)P3 was elicited by the addition of GTP gamma S (5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate) to saponin-permeabilized amoebae. A study of the changes in the lipid-soluble phosphatidyl inositol phosphates demonstrated that cyclic AMP also stimulated a rapid loss of radioactivity from 32P-labelled phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2), which corresponded in its timing to the rise in Ins(1,4,5)P3, indicating that a phosphoinositidase C (phospholipase C) is present that can be stimulated by occupation of the cell surface cyclic AMP receptors.