Insulin's effects primarily are initiated by insulin binding to its plasma membrane receptor and the sequential tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor and intracellular substrates, such as insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1). However, studies suggest some insulin effects, including those at the nucleus, may not be regulated by this pathway. The present study compared the levels of insulin binding, insulin receptor and IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation, and phosphatidylinosi- Insulin's effects primarily are initiated by insulin binding to its plasma membrane receptor and the sequential tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor and intracellular substrates, such as insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1), 1 IRS-2, or Shc (reviewed in Ref. 1). These substrates bind to Src homology 2 domains of several cytoplasmic signal proteins through their tyrosine phosphorylation sites. These proteins include the 85-kDa subunit of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3Ј-kinase, GRB-2, or Syp (tyrosine phosphatase) (1). Activation of these molecules and the following activation of other intracellular molecules, such as p21 ras , raf-1, mitogen-activated protein kinase, or S6 kinase is believed to be responsible for many of insulin's biological responses.It is well known that insulin affects nuclear events such as gene expression and cell growth (reviewed in Ref.2). One of insulin's effects on nuclear events is the stimulation or inhibition of a number of genes, specifically immediate early genes (3, 4). The immediate early genes are a large and diverse group, and the mechanisms involved in their regulation are complex. The induction of c-fos transcription, one of the well-characterized immediate early genes, by insulin or other growth factors is believed to require receptor phosphorylation and p21 ras activation. For instance, insulin induced c-fos mRNA accumulation in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells overexpressing human insulin receptor but not in their parent cells (5). Inhibition of p21 ras activity by dominant inhibitory mutants suppressed insulin-induced activation of the c-fos promoter (6). However, Mundschau et al. (7) have shown that induction of expression of the immediate early gene egr-1, but not c-fos, c-myc, and JE, was independent of platelet-derived growth factor receptor autophosphorylation using three different conditions in which platelet-derived growth factor receptor autophosphorylation was blocked. In addition, Eldredge et al. (8) reported that epidermal growth factor (EGF) induced c-fos expression in the cells expressing kinase-deficient EGF receptors. These results indicate the existence of another signaling mechanism, which operates independently of growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase activity and affects some, but not all, nuclear responses to growth factor stimulation.In the present study, we tested the possibility of the existence of divergent pathways in insulin signal transduction mechanisms regulating immediate early gene expression. We utilized CHO cells stably transfected with only neomyci...