LPIN2 is the phosphatase dominating the penultimate step of neutral lipid biosynthesis in Dictyostelium.

Abstract

Dictyostelium amoebae store surplus fatty acids from the diet in form of lipid droplets. Some of the enzymes governing neutral lipid synthesis are already known. For the phosphatidic acid-specific phosphatases, six genes were found, one of which was automatically annotated as LPIN2. Two GFP-tagged variants of LPIN2 homogeneously distribute in the cytoplasm and no organelle association was observed. LPIN2 ^- mutants contain less than 17% residual amount of the major neutral lipid species, but phospholipid amounts are not obviously affected. A growth retardation on bacteria as food source may suggest that lipid droplets serve to detoxify excess free fatty acids.