Activation of the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase/Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Pathway by Conventional, Novel, and Atypical Protein Kinase C Isotypes

作者：Dorothee C. Schönwaßer, Richard Marais, Christopher J. Marshall, Peter J. Parker · 发表于：Molecular and Cellular Biology · 年份：1998 · DOI：10.1128/mcb.18.2.790 · 被引用次数：769 · 研究领域：Melanoma and MAPK Pathways、Protein Kinase Regulation and GTPase Signaling、NF-κB Signaling Pathways

Phorbol ester treatment of quiescent Swiss 3T3 cells leads to cell proliferation, a response thought to be mediated by protein kinase C (PKC), the major cellular receptor for this class of agents. We demonstrate here that this proliferation is dependent on the activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase (ERK/MAPK) cascade. It is shown that dominant-negative PKC-alpha inhibits stimulation of the ERK/MAPK pathway by phorbol esters in Cos-7 cells, demonstrating a role for PKC in this activation. To assess the potential specificity of PKC isotypes mediating this process, constitutively active mutants of six PKC isotypes (alpha, beta, delta, epsilon, eta, and zeta) were employed. Transient transfection of these PKC mutants into Cos-7 cells showed that members of all three groups of PKC (conventional, novel, and atypical) are able to activate p42 MAPK as well as its immediate upstream activator, the MAPK/ERK kinase MEK-1. At the level of Raf, the kinase that phosphorylates MEK-1, the activation cascade diverges; while conventional and novel PKCs (isotypes alpha and eta) are potent activators of c-Raf1, atypical PKC-zeta cannot increase c-Raf1 activity, stimulating MEK by an independent mechanism. Stimulation of c-Raf1 by PKC-alpha and PKC-eta was abrogated for RafCAAX, which is a membrane-localized, partially active form of c-Raf1. We further established that activation of Raf is independent of phosphorylation at serine residues 259 and ...