Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase is a serine/threonine-specific protein kinase which is activated in response to various mitogenic agonists (e.g., epidermal growth factor, insulin, and the tumor promoter tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate [TPA]) and requires both threonine and tyrosine phosphorylation for activity. This enzyme has recently been shown to be identical or closely related to pp42, a protein which becomes tyrosine phosphorylated in response to mitogenic stimulation. Neither the kinases which regulate MAP kinase/pp42 nor the in vivo substrates for this enzyme are known. Because MAP kinase is activated and phosphorylated in response both to agents which stimulate tyrosine kinase receptors and to agents which stimulate protein kinase C, a serine/threonine kinase, we have examined the regulation and phosphorylation of this enzyme in 3T3-TNR9 cells, a variant cell line partially defective in protein kinase C-mediated signalling.In this communication, we show that in the 3T3-TNR9 variant cell line, TPA does not cause the characteristically rapid phosphorylation of pp42 or the activation and phosphorylation of MAP kinase. This defective response is not due to the absence of the MAP kinase/pp42 protein itself because both tyrosine phosphorylation of MAP kinase/pp42 and its enzymatic activation could be induced by platelet-derived growth factor in the 3T3-TNR9 cells. Thus, the defect in these variant cells apparently resides in some aspect of the regulation of MAP kinase phosphorylation. Since the 3T3-TNR9 cells are also defective with respect to the TPA-induced increase in ribosomal protein S6 kinase, these in vivo results reinforce the earlier in vitro finding that MAP kinase can regulate S6 kinase activity. These findings suggest a key role for MAP kinase in a kinase cascade involved in the control of cell proliferation.Activation of tyrosine kinase transmembrane receptors results in stimulation of a diverse array of cellular activities, such as glycolysis, protein synthesis, and transcription. However, in most cases in which the regulation of these cellular activities has been adequately investigated, critical phosphorylations of regulatory proteins occur not only on tyrosine but on serine and threonine as well. Thus, it seems likely that "switch kinases", which are regulated by tyrosine phosphorylation but function as serine/threonine kinases, are pivotal elements in the hormonal control of growth and metabolism. Elucidation of the pathways by which cell surface receptors control growth and metabolism will require analysis of the regulation of these switch kinases and determination of their downstream substrates.Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase was the first switch kinase to be so identified (35). This enzyme was originally described by Ray and Sturgill (34) as a serine/ threonine-specific protein kinase which was activated by treatment of 3T3-L1 cells with insulin and which could be partially purified by sequential DEAE and hydrophobicinteraction chromatography (36). Subsequently, it was found th...