The requirement of calcium ions for contractility of the heart was recognized by Sydney Ringer in 1883 marking the beginning of the development of our understanding of the role of Ca
2+ in muscle contraction (see [
1] for historical details). Calcium since became known as one of the most universal intracellular signaling molecules that regulates virtually every aspect of a cell’s life and death. These not only include rapid processes such as contraction and secretion but also long-term responses such as regulation of metabolic enzymes and ultimately gene expression. To act as an effective intracellular signal cytosolic Ca
2+ concentration ([Ca
2+]
i) must be kept at a low (~100 nM) resting level, but also needs to rapidly rise to high levels (up to 10–100 μM) and quickly return to baseline. Therefore, the delicate control of cytoplasmic Ca
2+ concentration has been a high priority during evolution. The source of Ca
2+ for the [Ca
2+]
i increase, in most cases, is the extracellular fluid but cells can also use Ca
2+ stored in organelles, a mechanism highly evolved in skeletal muscle. Rapid release of Ca
2+ from intracellular stores [mostly the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)] is a general mechanism to rapidly elevate cytosolic Ca
2+, but increased influx of Ca
2+ is usually necessary to elicit a full biological response.
The mechanism of Ca
2+ signal generation in so-called non-excitable tissues has become a center of interest when a group of hormones and neurotransmitters acting on cell surface receptors was found to activate cells without production of cAMP, the then recently discovered “second messenger” (see [
2]). These stimuli termed “calcium-mobilizing agonists” were often linked with cGMP production and increased turnover of phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) and both Ca
2+ release and influx responses [
3]. For a period, it was believed that the source of the internal Ca
2+ release was the mitochondria, an organelle known for its ability to take up and release significant amounts of Ca
2+ [
4]. Two major discoveries have finally provided with an explanation of how the Ca
2+ signal was generated. First, it was recognized that PtdIns(4,5)
P2 breakdown by PLC in the plasma membrane (PM) is the first step in the increased turnover of PtdIns after hormonal stimulation [
5,
6], and second, it was demonstrated that one of the products of this reaction, Ins(1,4,5)
P3 was capable of releasing Ca
2+ from non-mitochondrial internal Ca
2+ stores [
7]. With the finding of the Ins(1,4,5)
P3 receptors (InsP
3Rs) in the ER [
8] and identifying them as Ca
2+ release channels [
9], the link between PtdIns turnover and Ca
2+ release has been established.
Finding the mechanism responsible for the subsequent Ca
2+ influx has proven to pose a greater challenge. In 1986, James Putney postulated that during stimulation of calcium mobilizing receptors, depletion of the ER Ca
2+ stores was sufficient to activate Ca
2+ influx without the need for any of the messengers formed by PLC action [
10]. This mechanism has become known as store-operated Ca
2+ entry (SOCE) and was believed not to depend on phosphoinositides other than indirectly through Ins(1,4,5)
P3, a regulator of Ca
2+ release from the ER. The nature of the channel responsible for SOCE remained elusive and for several years TRPC channels had been the most favored candidates [
11]. TRP channels are non-specific cation channels first identified in
Drosophila eye as the proteins responsible for a characteristic light-induced change in the membrane potential (
transient
receptor
potential) in electric recordings from the eye [
12]. After cloning of several similar channels from mammalian sources [
13], research on TRP have dominated the field of SOCE [
11]. However, the ion selectivity and I/V profile of TRP channels in electrical recordings did not match those of I
CRAC, the electrophysiological correlate of SOCE previously identified in mast cells and T-cells [
14,
15], both of which display massive SOCE, questioning whether TRP channels were responsible for the Ca
2+ influx in these cells. The other unsolved question was the means by which the decreased luminal ER Ca
2+ ([Ca
2+]
ER) is communicated to the PM to activate Ca
2+ entry. The most accepted model termed “conformational coupling” assumed some sort of molecular proximity between the ER and the PM, where ER-resident proteins could regulate PM ion channels by direct interaction [
16], although the existence of a diffusible messenger has been also considered [
17]. The final answers to these questions were found recently when the ER proteins, STIM1 and -2, were discovered as the ER Ca
2+ sensors and the Orai1/CRACM proteins as essential component of SOCE and expression of these two proteins reconstituted both I
CRAC and SOCE (see[
18–
20]. However, it should be noted that SOCE may not be exclusively attributed to the Orai channels, as recent evidence suggests that STIM1 can also communicate to TRPC proteins [
21,
22] and that elimination of either Orai1 or TRPC channels can decrease the native SOC pathway in some cells [
23].
Although the link between SOCE and phosphoinositides has been firmly established (via Ins(1,4,5)P
3 production) several studies suggested that a variety of other ion channels and transporters can also be regulated by PLC-coupled receptors and ultimately by membrane phosphoinositides (see [
24,
25]). Therefore, the phosphoinositide-regulation of ion channel and membrane transport activities has emerged as a research topic parallel to the questions on SOCE and became an important new aspect of neuroscience and cell biology [
26,
27]. A third thread of research converging on this subject matter originated from the questions of how newly synthesized channels are delivered to the PM and whether the channels were active within the internal membranes en route to their final destination in the PM (see [
28]). Even more importantly, the removal and insertion of ion channels using internalization and recycling machineries of the cells, was recognized as a way of rapidly regulating the number of channels available in the PM. These processes linked ion channels to the general questions of cell biology namely membrane assembly and movements within the cells. In this review we will try to highlight some examples of the numerous distinct ways of regulation of ion channels by phosphoinositides. Because of the extensive literature in each of these topics, this review will not provide detailed in depth discussion available in several comprehensive reviews, but will attempt to emphasize the important overlaps between these otherwise disparate research areas that all relate to some aspect of Ca
2+ signaling.