Protein kinase capable of phosphorylating 40S ribosomal protein S6 on serine residues has been detected in chicken embryo fibroblasts. This activity appears to be regulated in direct response to expression of pp6Ovsrc in chicken embryo fibroblasts infected with a temperature-sensitive transformation mutant of Rous sarcoma virus. Partially purified S6 kinase was highly specific for S6 in 40S ribosomal subunits. The S6 kinase was not inhibited by calcium or by the heat-stable inhibitor of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, nor was it activated by phosphatidylserine, diacylglycerol, and calcium. Thus, it is distinct from protein kinase C and cAMP-dependent protein kinase, which are capable of phosphorylating S6 in vitro. The tumor-promoter phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate also stimulated ribosomal protein S6 kinase activity in serumstarved chicken embryo fibroblasts, whereas phorbol, the inactive analog of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, had no effect. S6 kinase activity stimulated by expression of pp60vzrc, by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, or by serum growth factors exhibited similar chromatographic properties upon ion-exchange chromatography. These results suggest that a common protein kinase may be activated by three diverse stimuli all involved in regulating cell proliferation.Modification of proteins by reversible phosphorylation has been shown to alter many cellular biochemical processes. The regulation of protein function through the phosphorylation of serine and/or threonine residues is well documented (1). During the past few years a number of oncogene products have been shown to be protein kinases specific for tyrosine residues (for reviews, see refs. 2 and 3), and a similar activity is associated with the membrane receptors for several growth factors (4). Changes in protein function as a result of phosphorylation on tyrosine residues have not been demonstrated. Nevertheless, a strong correlation exists between the expression of tyrosine-specific protein kinase activity and altered metabolism in cells transformed by retroviruses or stimulated by growth factors. Several transforming gene products and growth factors also stimulate the modification of proteins on serine residues presumably by altering the activity and/or the level of serine-specific protein kinase(s) and/or phosphoprotein phosphatase(s). One such protein of potential physiological importance is ribosomal protein S6.The phosphorylation of S6 is rapidly increased by treatment of quiescent cells with serum, with a variety of mitogenic agents, or with the tumor promoter phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) (5-14). Furthermore, even in the absence of such stimulating agents, S6 remains highly phosphorylated in cells transformed by several oncogenic viruses (15)(16)(17).Several lines of evidence link elevated S6 phosphorylation to initiation of protein synthesis, suggesting that this may be one of several events involved in the control of cell proliferation (11,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). As a result, much effort has been directed recently to id...