Abstract
Phospholipid methylation is a reaction in which phosphatidyl-ethanolamine (PtdEth) is converted to phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho) This reaction was first described by Bremer et al and has been confirmed by many other laboratories (1). However, the enzyme activity of phospholipid methylation was quite low, compared with CDP-choline transferase activity in PtdCho synthesis and could not be detected in other tissues besides liver and lung. Recently, we reported the existence of phospholipid methyltransferase (PMT-ase) activity in a variety of tissues and cells, and proposed that phospholipid methylation plays an important role in certain membrane functions, altering membrane lipid structure and fluidity (2). In this communication, I will describe the recent studies on phospholipid methylation and its role in signal transduction across biomembranes.
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Hirata, F. (1982). Overviews on phospholipid methylation. In: Biochemistry of S-Adenosylmethionine and Related Compounds. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06343-7_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06343-7_15
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