Antibodies against an inositol phospholipid-specific phospholipase C purified from bovine brain were used to screen rat brain lambda gt11 expression cDNA libraries. Complete sequences of three cDNA inserts yielded a cumulative sequence of 5106 base pairs. The deduced protein had 1289 amino acids with a calculated molecular weight of 148,431. The determination of an open reading frame was aided by the amino acid sequences of 21 tryptic peptides isolated from bovine brain phospholipase C. Only 9 residues of a total of 140 amino acid residues determined for the bovine enzyme were different from those deduced from the rat cDNA. Two regions of phospholipase C (amino acid residues 555-598 and 668-705) exhibited significant amino acid similarities to the products of various tyrosine kinase-related oncogenes (yes, src, fgr, abl, fps, fes, and tck). The homologous domain was located in the region that is not essential for the protein-tyrosine kinase activity but is likely to be involved in an interaction with cellular components that modulate kinase function. Therefore, this unexpected similarity raises the possibility that the 148-kDa phospholipase C and cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases are modulated by common cellular component(s).

Suh, P. G., Ryu, S. H., Moon, K. H., Suh, H. W., & Rhee, S. G. (1988). Inositol phospholipid-specific phospholipase C: complete cDNA and protein sequences and sequence homology to tyrosine kinase-related oncogene products. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 85(15), 5419–5423.