We show that a novel PTEN-like phosphatase (PLIP) exhibits a unique preference for phosphatidylinositol 5-phosphate (PI(5)P) as a substrate in vitro. PI(5)P is the least characterized member of the phosphoinositide (PI) family of lipid signaling molecules. Recent studies suggest a role for PI(5)P in a variety of cellular events, such as tumor suppression, and in response to bacterial invasion. Determining the means by which PI(5)P levels are regulated is therefore key to understanding these cellular processes. PLIP is highly enriched in testis tissue and, similar to other PI phosphatases, exhibits poor activity against several proteinaceous substrates. Despite a recent report suggesting a role for PI(5)P in the regulation of Akt, the overexpression of wild-type or catalytically inactive PLIP in Chinese hamster ovary-insulin receptor cells or a dsRNA-mediated knockdown of PLIP mRNA levels in Drosophila S2 cells does not alter Akt activity or phosphorylation. The unique in vitro catalytic activity and detailed biochemical and kinetic analyses reported here will be of great value in our continued efforts to identify in vivo substrate(s) for this highly conserved phosphatase.Protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) 1 are a family of ϳ100 phosphatases characterized by their highly conserved CX 5 R catalytic motif. Once thought to dephosphorylate only phosphotyrosine residues, a subset of PTPs are now known to dephosphorylate phosphoserine-and phosphothreonine-containing proteins, as well as to use RNA and phosphoinositides as substrates in vitro and in vivo (1-5). A structural study of the tumor suppressor phosphatase PTEN revealed a wider active site cleft and suggested positions of key basic amino acids in the P-loop (CKAGKGR) among the reasons for its ability to use the phosphoinositide PI(3,4,5)P 3 as its preferred substrate (6). Consistent with this observation, other PTPs possessing highly similar or identical active site motifs, including the PTEN homologs PTEN 2 and TPIP, bacterial effector phosphatases SopB and IpgD, and inositol polyphosphate-4 phosphatases 1 and 2, have also now been shown to possess activity against phosphoinositide substrates (7-13) (see Fig. 1A).In our bioinformatic searches of the NCBI databases for other PTEN-like PTPs, we identified a highly conserved phosphatase with over 60 orthologs throughout the Animalia, Plantae, Protista, and Eubacteria kingdoms. Here, we report that the murine ortholog of this PTEN-like phosphatase (PLIP), 2 possesses an in vitro activity against a rare phosphoinositide, PI(5)P.Phosphatidylinositol, an abundant membrane phospholipid, is capable of being phosphorylated on the 3, 4, and 5 positions of its inositol ring to form seven unique lipid signaling molecules collectively termed phosphoinositides (PIs) (14). PIs regulate critical cellular functions, including apoptosis, membrane trafficking, cytoskeletal rearrangement, metabolism, growth, and differentiation by altering the subcellular location, state of aggregation, and activity of a variety of cellular en...