Plant Phospholipid Diversity: Emerging Functions in Metabolism and Protein-Lipid Interactions

Phospholipids are essential components of biological membranes and signal transduction cascades in plants. In recent years, plant phospholipid research was greatly advanced by the characterization of numerous mutants affected in phospholipid biosynthesis and the discovery of a number of functionally important phospholipid-binding proteins. It is now accepted that most phospholipids to some extent have regulatory functions, including those that serve as constituents of biological membranes. Phospholipids are more than an inert end product of lipid biosynthesis. This review article summarizes recent advances on phospholipid biosynthesis with a particular focus on polar head group synthesis, followed by a short overview on protein-phospholipid interactions as an emerging regulatory mechanism of phospholipid function in arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana).