Abstract

The inositol phosphate metabolism network has been found to be much more complex than previously thought, as more and more inositol phosphates and their metabolizing enzymes have been discovered. Some of the inositol phosphates have been shown to have biological activities, but little is known about their signal transduction mechanisms except for that of inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate. The recent discovery, however, of a number of binding proteins for inositol high polyphosphate [inositol 1,3,4,5‐tetrakisphosphate (IP4), inositol 1,3,4,5,6‐pentakisphosphate, or inositol hexakisphosphate] enables us to speculate on the physiological function of these compounds. In this article we focus on two major issues: (1) the roles of inositol high polyphosphates in vesicular trafficking, especially exocytosis, and (2) pleckstrin homology domaincontaining IP4 binding proteins involved in the Ras signaling pathway.