Conversion of phosphatidylinositol (PI) to PI4-phosphate (PI4P) and then to PI(4,5)P2 is essential for the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration under heat stress in Ganoderma lucidum.

How cells drive the phospholipid signal response to heat stress (HS) to maintain cellular homeostasis is a fundamental issue in biology, but the regulatory mechanism of this fundamental process is unclear. Previous quantitative analyses of lipids showed that phosphatidylinositol (PI) accumulates after HS in Ganoderma lucidum, implying the inositol phospholipid signal may be associated with HS signal transduction. Here, we found that the PI-4-kinase and PI-4-phosphate-5-kinase activities are activated and that their lipid products PI-4-phosphate and PI-4,5-bisphosphate are increased under HS. Further experimental results showed that the cytosolic Ca2+ ([Ca2+ ]c ) and ganoderic acid (GA) contents induced by HS were decreased when cells were pretreated with Li+ , an inhibitor of inositol monophosphatase, and this decrease could be rescued by PI and PI-4-phosphate. Furthermore, inhibition of PI-4-kinases resulted in a decrease in the Ca2+ and GA contents under HS that could be rescued by PI-4-phosphate but not PI. However, the decrease in the Ca2+ and GA contents by silencing of PI-4-phosphate-5-kinase could not be rescued by PI-4-phosphate. Taken together, our study reveals the essential role of the step converting PI to PI-4-phosphate and then to PI-4,5-bisphosphate in [Ca2+ ]c signalling and GA biosynthesis under HS.