Sphingolipids messengers

Membrane sphingolipids also can serve as sources of intracellular messengers. Both ceramide and sphingomyelin (Fig. 10-12) are potent regulators of protein... 

Sphingolipids are found in the membranes in animals, plants, and some lower forms of life but are absent from most bacteria such as E. coli. The common structural feature of all sphingolipids is a long-chain hydroxylated secondary amine (see fig. 17.4). Sphingolipids are particularly abundant in myelin sheath, a multilayered membranous structure that protects and insulates nerve fibers. Recently several sphingolipids have been implicated as second messengers in cells. 

Elucidation of cell death signal transduction pathways almost invariably requires experimental manipulation of stable cell lines, thus few data have been derived from fish models. However, it was recently shown that ceramide, a sphingolipid-derived second messenger molecule, is up-regulated during apoptosis of cultured fathead... 

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