Previous studies from several independent laboratories have demonstrated the existence of an autonomous phosphoinositide (PI) cycle within the nucleus, where it is involved in both cell proliferation and differentiation. Stimulation of Swiss 3T3 cells with insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) has been shown to induce a transient and rapid increase in the activity of nuclear-localized phospholipase C (PLC) 1, which in turn leads to the production of inositol trisphosphate and diacylglycerol in the nucleus. Nuclear diacylglycerol provides the driving force for the nuclear translocation of protein kinase C (PKC) ␣. Here, we report that treatment of Swiss 3T3 cells with Go6976, a selective inhibitor of PKC ␣, caused a sustained elevation of IGF-I-stimulated nuclear PLC activity. A time course study revealed an inverse relationship between nuclear PKC activity and the activity of nuclear PLC in IGF-I-treated cells. A time-dependent association between PKC ␣ and PLC 1 in the nucleus was also observed following IGF-I treatment. Two-dimensional phosphopeptide mapping and site-directed mutagenesis demonstrated that PKC promoted phosphorylation of PLC 1 at serine 887 in the nucleus of IGF-I-treated cells. Overexpression of either a PLC 1 mutant in which the PKC phosphorylation site Ser 887 was replaced by alanine, or a dominant-negative PKC ␣, resulted in a sustained activation of nuclear PLC following IGF-I stimulation. These results indicate that a negative feedback regulation of PLC 1 by PKC ␣ plays a critical role in the termination of the IGF-I-dependent signal that activates the nuclear PI cycle.Phospholipase C  isoforms (1, 2, 3 and 4) at the plasma membrane are regulated by G protein-coupled seven-transmembrane receptors which activate heterotrimeric G␣␥ protein complexes upon ligand stimulation (1-3). The hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP 2 ) 1 by PLC s generates two well recognized second messengers, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate and DG. Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate evokes release of Ca 2ϩ from intracellular stores, while DG alone, or in concert with Ca 2ϩ , activates some isoforms of PKC (4). Mounting evidence suggests that an analogous phosphoinositide (PI) signaling, which is distinct from classic PI signaling at plasma membrane, exists in the nucleus (5-7). The presence of such a nuclear PI cycle has been demonstrated in several different cell lines (8 -11, 12), and has been shown to be important for both cell proliferation (13) and differentiation (14).The key enzyme for the initiation of nuclear PI signaling is phospholipase C (PLC) 1, which is the major isoform present in the nucleus of 3T3 cells (15) as well as other cell lines (16 -19). It exists as two alternatively spliced subtypes, PLC 1a (150 kDa) and PLC 1b (140 kDa) which differ only in a short region of their carboxyl termini (20). Recent studies suggest that the 1b form predominantly localizes in the nucleus while the 1a form distributes equally between the nucleus and plasma membrane (21). A nuclear locali...