Phosphatidylinositol 3 (PI3)-kinase enhancer (PIKE) is a nuclearGTPase that enhances PI3-kinase activity in a GTP-dependent manner. Both PIKE-L and -A isoforms contain GTPase, pleckstrin homology (PH), ADP ribosylation factor-GTPase-activating protein, and two ankyrin repeats domains, and C-terminal ADP ribosylation factor-GTPase-activating protein activates its internal GTPase activity. However, whether PH domain modulates the intramolecular action and subsequently influences its downstream signalings remains elusive. Here we show that PH domain from PIKE-L robustly binds PI(3,4,5)P3 and exclusively resides in the nucleus. By contrast, the mutant (K679,687N), unable to bind phosphoinositol lipids, translocates to the cytoplasm. This mutation substantially compromises the stimulatory effects on PI3-kinase by PIKE-L. Surprisingly, PH domain from PIKE-A distributes in the cytoplasm. Similar mutation in PH domain of PIKE-A abolishes its binding to PI(3,4,5)P3 and significantly decreases its activation of Akt. Moreover, amplified PIKE-A from human cancers contains mutations and highly stimulates Akt kinase activity, correlating with its GTPase activity. Thus, phosphatidylinositols regulate PIKE GTPase activity, mediating its downstream PI3-kinase͞Akt signaling through a feedback mechanism by binding to its PH domain.pleckstrin homology domain ͉ nuclear translocation ͉ negative feedback ͉ GTPase activation P hosphatidylinositol 3 (PI3)-kinase enhancer (PIKE) is a recently identified brain-specific nuclear GTPase that binds PI3-kinase and stimulates its lipid kinase activity. PIKE activates nuclear PI3-kinase in a GTP-dependent manner (1). Nerve growth factor elicits membrane-associated 4.1N nuclear translocation and interaction with PIKE, which was initially identified as a 4.1N-binding partner in a yeast two-hybrid screening. The binding of 4.1N to PIKE prevents its interactions with nuclear PI3-kinase, leading to inactivation of nuclear PI3-kinase. To date, three forms of PIKE have been characterized, PIKE-S, PIKE-L, and PIKE-A. PIKE-S is the initially identified shorter isoform (1). PIKE-L, a longer isoform of PIKE gene, differs from PIKE-S by C-terminal extension containing ADP ribosylation factor-GTPase activating protein (Arf-GAP) and two ankyrin repeats domains. In contrast to the exclusive nuclear localization of PIKE-S, PIKE-L occurs in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm (2). In addition, we show that WT merlin, binds PIKE-L and inhibits PI3-kinase activity. This suppression of PI3-kinase activity results from merlin disrupting the binding of PIKE-L to PI3-kinase (3). Recently, a third PIKE isoform, PIKE-A, was identified in human glioblastoma multiforme brain cancers. We have reported that PIKE-A is coamplified with cyclin-dependent kinase 4 in a variety of human cancers. Unlike the brain-specific PIKE-L and -S isoforms, PIKE-A distributes in various tissues. PIKE-A contains the same domains present in PIKE-L but lacks N-terminal proline-rich domain, which binds PI3-kinase and PLC-␥1. Instead, PIKE-A specif...