Understanding phospholipase D (PLD) using leukocytes: PLD involvement in cell adhesion and chemotaxis

Phospholipase D (PLD) is an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of membrane phosphatidylcholine to choline and phosphatidic acid (PA; a second messenger). PLD is expressed in nearly all types of leukocytes and has been associated with phagocytosis, degranulation, microbial killing, and leukocyte maturation. With the application of recently developed molecular tools (i.e., expression vectors, silencing RNA, and specific antibodies), the demonstration of a key role for PLD in those and related cellular actions has contributed to a better awareness of its importance. A case in point is the recent findings that RNA interference-mediated depletion of PLD results in impaired leukocyte adhesion and chemotaxis toward a gradient of chemokines, implying that PLD is necessary for leukocyte movement. We forecast that based on results such as those, leukocytes may prove to be useful tools to unravel still-unresolved mechanistic issues in the complex biology of PLD. Three such issues are considered here: first, whether the cellular actions of PLD are mediated entirely by PA (the product of its enzymatic reaction) or whether PLD by itself interacts with other protein signaling molecules; second, the current difficulty of defining a PA consensus site in the various intracellular protein targets of PA; and third, the resolution of specific PLD location (upstream or downstream) in a particular effector signaling cascade. There are reasons to expect that leukocytes and their leukemic cell line counterparts will continue yielding invaluable information to cell biologists to resolve standing molecular and functional issues concerning PLD.