Characterization of the human tumor suppressors TIG3 and HRASLS2 as phospholipid-metabolizing enzymes

Tazarotene-induced protein 3 (TIG3) and HRAS-like suppressor family 2 (HRASLS2) exhibit tumor-suppressing activities and belong to the lecithin retinol acyltransferase (LRAT) protein family. Since Ca2+-independent N-acyltransferase and H-rev107 (another tumor suppressor), both of which are members of the LRAT family, have been recently reported to possess catalytic activities related to phospholipid metabolism, we examined possible enzyme activities of human TIG3 and HRASLS2 together with human H-rev107. The purified recombinant proteins of TIG3, HRASLS2, and H-rev107 functioned as phospholipase (PL) A1/2 in a Ca2+-independent manner with maximal activities of 0.53, 0.67, and 2.57 μmol/min/mg of protein, respectively. The proteins were active with various phosphatidylcholines (PCs) and phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs), and for most of substrates the PLA1 activity was much higher than the PLA2 activity. In addition, HRASLS2 catalyzed N-acylation of PE to form N-acyl-PE and O-acylation of lyso PC to form PC. TIG3 and H-rev107 catalyzed the N-acylation and O-acylation at relatively low rates. Moreover, these three proteins showed different expression profiles in human tissues. These results suggest that the tumor suppressors TIG3, HRASLS2 and H-rev107 are involved in the phospholipid metabolism with different physiological roles.