The tubercle bacillus parasitizes macrophages by inhibiting phagosome maturation into the phagolysosome. This phenomenon underlies the tuberculosis pandemic involving 2 billion people. We report here how Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes phagosome maturation arrest. A glycosylated M. tuberculosis phosphatidylinositol [mannose-capped lipoarabinomannan (ManLAM)] interfered with the phagosomal acq...

Phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate directs the endosomal localization of regulatory proteins by binding to FYVE and PX domains. New structures of these domains complexed with the phosphoinositide headgroup show how interactions with phosphate and hydroxyl groups differentiate this lipid from all others.

Interest in our laboratory in the inositol lipids derives from the presence of relatively high amounts of phosphatidylinositol phosphate (PhIP) and phosphatidylinositol diphosphate (PhIPP) in excitable tissue. It was with this relationship in mind that we embarked on a study of biosynthetic pathways of inositol lipids several years ago. A first step in the elucidation of biosynthetic pathways o...

Phosphatidylinositol is an important lipid, both as a key membrane constituent and as a participant in essential metabolic processes in all plants and animals, both directly and via a number of metabolites. It is an acidic (anionic) phospholipid that in essence consists of a phosphatidic acid backbone, linked via the phosphate group to inositol (hexahydroxycyclohexane). In most organisms, the s...