Constitutive activation of S6 kinase by deletion of amino-terminal autoinhibitory and rapamycin sensitivity domains.

The mitogen response of p70/p85 S6 kinase (S6K) parallels that of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK). However, S6K lies on a discrete signaling pathway from MAPK, since the immunosuppressant drug rapamycin inactivates S6K without affecting the MAPK cascade. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase operates upstream of S6K, but the intermediate effectors in this signaling pathway are unknown. We have identified an autoinhibitory domain in S6K that overrides the requirement of the amino terminus for the activation of S6K. The region between codons 58 and 77 is highly inhibitory, and its deletion results in constitutive kinase activation. Additionally, deletion of the first 77 codons confers mitogen independence and insensitivity to rapamycin. Rat1 cells expressing delta N77 S6K exhibit a distinctly abnormal morphology. This constitutively active mutant will provide a useful means of studying the effects of expressing unregulated S6K in cells. Subdeletion analysis of the amino terminus has defined two discrete domains in the N terminus of S6K--a domain between codons 1 and 58 is essential for the mitogen activation of S6K and confers rapamycin sensitivity; a second domain between codons 58 and 77 confers autoinhibition. We propose a model for the activation of S6 kinase in which mitogen-stimulated cellular factors interact with the amino terminus to negate the effects of the autoinhibitory domain.