Inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatases: Lipid phosphatases with flair

Recent studies have identified the inositol polyphosphate 5-phosphatases as a large family of signal modifying enzymes comprising 10 mammalian and 4 yeast family members. A number of investigations including gene-targeted deletion of 5-phosphatases in mice have demonstrated that these enzymes regulate many important cellular events including hematopoietic cell proliferation and activation, insulin signaling, endocytosis, and actin polymerization.