Protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms, ␣, ␤I, and ␥ of cPKC subgroup, ␦ and of nPKC subgroup, and of aPKC subgroup, were tyrosine phosphorylated in COS-7 cells in response to H 2 O 2 . These isoforms isolated from the H 2 O 2 -treated cells showed enhanced enzyme activity to various extents. The enzymes, PKC ␣ and ␦, recovered from the cells were independent of lipid cofactors for their catalytic activity. Analysis of mutated molecules of PKC ␦ showed that tyrosine residues, which are conserved in the catalytic domain of the PKC family, are critical for PKC activation induced by H 2 O 2 . These results suggest that PKC isoforms can be activated through tyrosine phosphorylation in a manner unrelated to receptor-coupled hydrolysis of inositol phospholipids.

A wide variety of biological activities including the major metabolic actions of insulin is regulated by phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase. However, the downstream effectors of the various signaling pathways that emanate from PI 3-kinase remain unclear. Akt (protein kinase B), a serine-threonine kinase with a pleckstrin homology domain, is thought to be one such downstream effector. A mutant Akt (Akt-AA) in which the phosphorylation sites (Thr 308 and Ser 473 ) targeted by growth factors are replaced by alanine has now been shown to lack protein kinase activity and, when overexpressed in CHO cells or 3T3-L1 adipocytes with the use of an adenovirus vector, to inhibit insulin-induced activation of endogenous Akt. Akt-AA thus acts in a dominant negative manner in intact cells. Insulin-stimulated protein synthesis, which is sensitive to wortmannin, a pharmacological inhibitor of PI 3-kinase, was abolished by overexpression of Akt-AA without an effect on amino acid transport into the cells, suggesting that Akt is required for insulin-stimulated protein synthesis. Insulin activation of p70 S6 kinase was inhibited by ϳ75% in CHO cells and ϳ30% in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, whereas insulin-induced activation of endogenous Akt was inhibited by 80 to 95%, by expression of Akt-AA. Thus, Akt activity appears to be required, at least in part, for insulin stimulation of p70 S6 kinase. However, insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in both CHO cells and 3T3-L1 adipocytes was not affected by overexpression of Akt-AA, suggesting that Akt is not required for this effect of insulin. These data indicate that Akt acts as a downstream effector in some, but not all, of the signaling pathways downstream of PI 3-kinase.Akt is a pleckstrin homology (PH) domain-containing protein serine-threonine kinase whose kinase domain shares structural similarity with protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes and cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) (3). Thus, Akt has also been termed RAC-PK (protein kinase related to A and C kinases) (19) and PKB (protein kinase B) (7). Insulin and various other growth factors activate Akt, and this activation is inhibited by pharmacological blockers of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase or by a dominant negative mutant of PI 3-kinase (4,14,25). Furthermore, Akt is activated by overexpression of a constitutively active mutant of PI 3-kinase in quiescent cells (11,23). These observations indicate that Akt is a downstream effector of PI 3-kinase.PI 3-kinase, which consists of an 85-kDa regulatory subunit and a 110-kDa catalytic subunit (5), is implicated in various metabolic effects of insulin (18, 59). A dominant negative mutant of PI 3-kinase as well as various pharmacological inhibitors, such as wortmannin and LY294002, have been used to block specific signaling pathways that include this enzyme (6,16,31,39,61). The metabolic actions of insulin that are sensitive to either a dominant negative mutant or pharmacological inhibitors of PI 3-kinase include stimulation of glucose uptake, antilipolysis, activation of fatty acid synthase ...

The proline-rich Akt substrate of 40 kilodaltons (PRAS40) was identified as a raptor-binding protein that is phosphorylated directly by mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) complex 1 (mTORC1) but not mTORC2 in vitro, predominantly at PRAS40 (Ser 183 ). The binding of S6K1 and 4E-BP1 to raptor requires a TOR signaling (TOS) motif, which contains an essential Phe followed by four alternating acidic and small hydrophobic amino acids. PRAS40 binding to raptor was severely inhibited by mutation of PRAS40 (Phe 129 to Ala). Immediately carboxyl-terminal to Phe 129 are two small hydrophobic amino acid followed by two acidic residues. PRAS40 binding to raptor was also abolished by mutation of the major mTORC1 phosphorylation site, Ser 183 , to Asp. PRAS40 (Ser 183 ) was phosphorylated in intact cells; this phosphorylation was inhibited by rapamycin, by 2-deoxyglucose, and by overexpression of the tuberous sclerosis complex heterodimer. PRAS40 (Ser 183 ) phosphorylation was also inhibited reversibly by withdrawal of all or of only the branched chain amino acids; this inhibition was reversed by overexpression of the Rheb GTPase. Overexpressed PRAS40 suppressed the phosphorylation of S6K1 and 4E-BP1 at their rapamycin-sensitive phosphorylation sites, and reciprocally, overexpression of S6K1 or 4E-BP1 suppressed phosphorylation of PRAS40 (Ser 183 ) and its binding to raptor. RNA interference-induced depletion of PRAS40 enhanced the amino acid-stimulated phosphorylation of both S6K1 and 4E-BP1. These results establish PRAS40 as a physiological mTORC1 substrate that contains a variant TOS motif. Moreover, they indicate that the ability of raptor to bind endogenous substrates is limiting for the activity of mTORC1 in vivo and is therefore a potential locus of regulation.The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) 3 is the founding member of the PI-3 kinase-related family of protein (Ser/ Thr) kinases (PIKKs) and controls many important aspects of the cellular response to nutrient sufficiency and growth factors (1). The mTOR polypeptide is now known to function in two distinct, independently regulated hetero-oligomeric complexes, called mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) and mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2). Both complexes contain mTOR and the polypeptide mLST8/G␤L; mTORC1 in addition contains raptor (an ortholog of Saccharomyces cerevisiae KOG1), which binds directly to the known mTORC1 substrates S6K1 and 4E-BP1 and is indispensable for their phosphorylation by mTOR in vivo and in vitro. mTORC2 lacks raptor but contains the polypeptides rictor (an ortholog to ScAVO3) and mSin1 (an ortholog of ScAVO1). mTORC2 is one of the activating kinases for Akt, previously called PDK2, and also regulates the actin cytoskeleton through as yet unidentified effectors. Although rapamycin, in complex with FKBP12, binds directly to mTOR in a segment just amino-terminal to the catalytic domain, only mTORC1 binds the FKBP12-rapamycin complex, and thus only mTORC1 is directly susceptible to inhibition by rapamycin.Rapamycin is among the most selective kinase inhibitors k...

Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase (PDE) is an important regulator of the cellular concentrations of the second messengers cyclic AMP (cAMP) and cGMP. Insulin activates the 3B isoform of PDE in adipocytes in a phosphoinositide 3-kinase-dependent manner; however, downstream effectors that mediate signaling to PDE3B remain unknown. Insulin-induced phosphorylation and activation of endogenous or recombinant PDE3B in 3T3-L1 adipocytes have now been shown to be inhibited by a dominant-negative mutant of the serine-threonine kinase Akt, suggesting that Akt is necessary for insulin-induced phosphorylation and activation of PDE3B. Serine-273 of mouse PDE3B is located within a motif (RXRXXS) that is preferentially phosphorylated by Akt. A mutant PDE3B in which serine-273 was replaced by alanine was not phosphorylated either in response to insulin in intact cells or by purified Akt in vitro. In contrast, PDE3B mutants in which alanine was substituted for either serine-296 or serine-421, each of which lies within a sequence (RRXS) preferentially phosphorylated by cAMP-dependent protein kinase, were phosphorylated by Akt in vitro or in response to insulin in intact cells. Moreover, the serine-273 mutant of PDE3B was not activated by insulin when expressed in adipocytes. These results suggest that PDE3B is a physiological substrate of Akt and that Akt-mediated phosphorylation of PDE3B on serine-273 is important for insulin-induced activation of PDE3B.Akt is a protein serine-threonine kinase that contains a pleckstrin homology domain and whose kinase domain has structural similarity with those of protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes and cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase (PKA) (9, 21). Thus, Akt has also been termed protein kinase B. Akt was originally shown to be activated by growth factors such as platelet-derived growth factor and insulin, but later the enzyme was also found to be activated by cytokines and ligands for G protein-coupled receptors (21,33,34). Moreover, expression of polyomavirus middle T antigen as well as cellular stresses such as hyperosmolarity, heat shock, and fluid shear stress also induces activation of Akt (17,27,42). However, the mechanisms by which Akt is activated by these diverse stimuli are not fully understood. The activation of Akt by growth factors or cytokines is blocked by pharmacological or molecular biological inhibitors of phosphoinositide (PI) 3-kinase (7,19,24), indicating that PI 3-kinase is an upstream regulator of Akt, although PI 3-kinase-independent stimuli that induce activation of Akt also appear to exist (27,33,38).Akt is a general mediator of cell survival and protection from apoptosis (9, 21). It has also been suggested to participate in meiosis in oocytes (3), in endocytosis elicited by RAS (5), in differentiation of adipocytes (25), and in various metabolic actions of insulin (23,25,44,45). In spite of the potential importance of Akt in such diverse biological activities, only a few proteins have been identified as physiological substrates of this enzyme. The first iden...

The primary structure of the ; subspecies of rat brain protein kinase C was deduced from its overlapping cDNAs. The ; subspecies of protein kinase C consists of 592 amino acid residues with the calculated molecular mass of 67,740 Da and has regulatory and protein kinase domains in its amino-and carboxyl-terminal halves, respectively. Although all members of the protein kinase C family so far identified have a tandem repeat of the characteristic cysteine-rich zinc- The physiological importance of protein kinase (PKC) is now widely accepted and well documented (1). Molecular cloning and biochemical analysis has revealed the enzyme to exist as a family of multiple subspecies having closely related structures (1). Initially, four cDNA clones, a, /31, PII, and y were isolated (2-8). The four PKC subspecies all consist of a single polypeptide with four conserved (C1-C4) and five variable (V1-V5) regions. The amino-terminal half, containing regions C1 and C2, is presumably the regulatory domain that interacts with Ca2 , phospholipid, and diacylglycerol or phorbol ester, whereas the carboxyl-terminal half, containing regions C3 and C4, appears to be the protein kinase domain, as it shows large clusters of sequences that resemble many other protein kinases. The region C1 contains a tandem repeat of the characteristic cysteine-rich zinc-finger-like sequence. The structure and genetic identity of these subspecies have been determined by comparison with the enzymes that are separately expressed in mammalian COS-7 cells transfected by the respective cDNA-containing plasmids (9,10) and by immunoblot analysis, using type-specific antibodies, of COS-7 cells transfected with plasmids containing cDNA inserts of the different PKC subspecies (11). Recently, several additional cDNA clones designated 6, E, and {, were isolated from a rat brain library by using a mixture of a, 3II, and y cDNAs as probes under low-stringency conditions (12, 13). A cDNA clone designated nPKC, probably encoding the E subspecies, was also found in a rabbit brain cDNA library (14). Another cDNA clone, RP16, isolated previously from a rat brain library (15) may also encode a part of the E subspecies. The three PKC molecules have a common structure closely related to, but clearly distinct from, the four subspecies initially described. The enzyme encoded by 6, E, and r cDNA all lack the region C2, and the translational products of 6 and e cDNA in COS-7 cells did not show an absolute requirement of Ca2 , phospholipid, and diacylglycerol (13). On the other hand, the structure and enzymatic properties of the {-subspecies remain unknown, because the full length of its cDNA has not been available. This paper will describe the complete structure, expression, and some kinetic properties of the ; subspecies of PKC.* MATERIALS AND METHODSIsolation and Characterization of cDNA Clones. Two cDNA clones, ACKRL;5 and ACKRL;8, both encoding the r subspecies of PKC were isolated from a rat brain cDNA library, which was constructed in AgtlO, by using a 0.4-kilobase (k...