Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Mol. Cell. Biol., Jan 1997, 338-344, Vol 17, No. 1
A Klippel, WM Kavanaugh, D Pot and LT Williams
Phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase is a cytoplasmic signaling molecule that
is recruited to activated growth factor receptors after growth factor
stimulation of cells. Activation of PI 3-kinase results in increased
intracellular levels of 3' phosphorylated inositol phospholipids and the
induction of signaling responses, including the activation of the protein
kinase Akt, which is also known as RAC-PK or PKB. We tested the possibility
that the phospholipid products of PI 3- kinase directly mediate the
activation of Akt. We have previously described a constitutively active PI
3-kinase, p110, which can stimulate Akt activity. We used purified p110
protein to generate a series of 3' phosphorylated inositol phospholipids
and tested whether any of these lipids could activate Akt in vitro.
Phospholipid vesicles containing PI3,4 bisphosphate (P2) specifically
activated Akt in vitro. By contrast, the presence of phospholipid vesicles
containing PI3P or PI3,4,5P3 failed to increase the kinase activity of Akt.
Akt could also be activated by synthetic dipalmitoylated PI3,4P2 or after
enzymatic conversion of PI3,4,5P3 into PI3,4P2 with the signaling inositol
polyphosphate 5' phosphatase SIP. We show that PI3,4P2-mediated activation
is dependent on a functional pleckstrin homology domain in Akt, since a
point mutation in the pleckstrin homology domain abrogated the response to
PI3,4P2. Our findings show that a phospholipid product of PI 3-kinase can
directly stimulate an enzyme known to be an important mediator of PI
3-kinase signaling.
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology
A specific product of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase directly activates the protein kinase Akt through its pleckstrin homology domain
Chiron Corporation, Emeryville, California 94608, USA.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»