Reversible phosphorylation of the phospholipid phosphatidylinositol (PI) is a key event in the determination of organelle identity and an underlying regulatory feature in many biological processes. Here, we investigated the role of PI signaling in the regulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway that controls filamentous growth in yeast. Lipid kinases that generate phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate [PI(4)P] at the Golgi (Pik1p) or PI(4,5)P2 at the plasma membrane (PM) (Mss4p and Stt4p) were required for filamentous-growth MAPK pathway signaling. Introduction of a conditional allele of PIK1 (pik1-83) into the filamentous (⌺1278b) background reduced MAPK activity and caused defects in invasive growth and biofilm/mat formation. MAPK regulatory proteins that function at the PM, including Msb2p, Sho1p, and Cdc42p, were mislocalized in the pik1-83 mutant, which may account for the signaling defects of the PI(4)P kinase mutants. Other PI kinases (Fab1p and Vps34p), and combinations of PIP (synaptojanin-type) phosphatases, also influenced the filamentous-growth MAPK pathway. Loss of these proteins caused defects in cell polarity, which may underlie the MAPK signaling defect seen in these mutants. In line with this possibility, disruption of the actin cytoskeleton by latrunculin A (LatA) dampened the filamentous-growth pathway. Various PIP signaling mutants were also defective for axial budding in haploid cells, cell wall construction, or proper regulation of the high-osmolarity glycerol response (HOG) pathway. Altogether, the study extends the roles of PI signaling to a differentiation MAPK pathway and other cellular processes.M APK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathways are evolutionarily conserved signal transduction modules (1, 2). MAPK cascades regulate the response to environmental challenges, such as changes in osmolarity, nutrient starvation, DNA damage, and damage to cell integrity. In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, MAPK pathways regulate cell wall integrity (3), pheromone response or mating (4), filamentous growth (5), and the response to high osmolarity (high-glycerol response [HOG] pathway [6]). Each MAPK pathway in yeast responds to a different stimulus. Under some circumstances, several MAPK pathways are required to mount an appropriate response (7-11).The filamentous-growth MAPK pathway regulates differentiation to the filamentous cell type (12-14) and the development of biofilms or mats (15). During filamentous growth, the MAPK pathway, together with other pathways (16-18), induces a delay in the cell cycle (19), a reorganization of cell polarity, which leads to a distal-unipolar budding pattern (12,13,20,21), and elevated expression of the cell adhesion molecule Flo11p (22). The developmental foraging responses that occur in S. cerevisiae are evolutionarily conserved across many fungal species. In pathogenic fungi, like Candida albicans, an orthologous differentiation MAPK pathway (called the Cek1p pathway) regulates filamentous/hyphal growth and biofilm formation ...