G q -coupled G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) mediate the actions of a variety of messengers that are key regulators of different cellular functions. These receptors can regulate a highly interconnected network of biochemical routes that control the activity of several members of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family. The ERK5 MAPK has been shown to be activated by G q -coupled GPCR via unknown mechanisms. We find that the atypical protein kinase C (PKC), previously reported to interact with the ERK5 activator MEK5 and to be involved in epidermal growth factor-mediated ERK5 stimulation, plays a crucial role in the activation of the ERK5 pathway by G q -coupled GPCR. Stimulation of ERK5 by G q -coupled GPCR is abolished upon pharmacological inhibition of PKC as well as in embryonic fibroblasts obtained from PKC-deficient mice. Both PKC and MEK5 associate to G␣ q upon activation of GPCR, thus forming a ternary complex that seems essential for the activation of ERK5. These data put forward a novel function of G␣ q as a scaffold protein involved in the modulation of the ERK5 cascade by GPCR that could be relevant in G q -mediated physiological functions.The activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) 3 superfamily plays an important role in a wide variety of signaling pathways involved in embryogenesis, cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, apoptosis, and gene expression. The MAPK superfamily includes the well known extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK1-3), and p38 (␣, , ␥, and ␦) families.In addition, ERK3, ERK4, ERK5 (also termed big MAPK1 or BMK1), and ERK7 are other more recently described MAPK family members that display distinct regulatory mechanisms.A plethora of extracellular stimuli have been found to modulate MAPK cascades (1, 2). Although many aspects remain to be detailed, several studies have described the specific mechanisms by which G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) can activate the main MAPK families (2-4), which can be modulated by different G␣ or ␥ subunits, in a stimulus-or context-specific manner (2, 5).The ERK5 MAPK has been reported to be activated by mitogens (EGF, granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor), agonists of GPCR, cytokines (leukemia inhibitory factor, cardiotrophin-1), and stress (6 -8). ERK5 is selectively activated by the upstream kinase MEK5, which in turn is stimulated by MEKK2 and MEKK3, in a process that appears to involve Src tyrosine kinase activation or the scaffolding function of Gab1 or Lck-associated adaptor (LAD) adaptors depending on the stimuli (7, 9). It has also been described that EGF-mediated ERK5 stimulation requires a direct association between PKC and MEK5 (10) through their respective PB1 domains (11), in a process that may involve scaffold proteins such as p62, to which both . However, the mechanisms by which GPCR stimulate ERK5 are largely unknown. It has been reported that ERK5 stimulation can be triggered by GPCR coupled to the G q and G 12/13 families of heterotrime...