The B cell receptor (BCR) initiates three major signaling pathways: the Ras pathway, which leads to extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation; the phospholipase C-␥ pathway, which causes calcium mobilization; and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) pathway. These combine to induce different biological responses depending on the context of the BCR signal. Both the Ras and PI 3-kinase pathways are important for B cell development and activation. Several model systems show evidence of cross-regulation between these pathways. Here we demonstrate through the use of PI 3-kinase inhibitors and a dominant-negative PI 3-kinase construct that the BCR-induced phosphorylation and activation of ERK is dependent on PI 3-kinase. PI 3-kinase feeds into the Ras signaling cascade at multiple points, both upstream and downstream of Ras. We also show that ERK activation is dependent on phospholipase C-␥, in keeping with its dependence on calcium mobilization. Last, the activation of PI 3-kinase itself is completely dependent on Ras. We conclude that the PI 3-kinase and Ras signaling cascades are intimately connected in B cells and that the activation of ERK is a signal integration point, since it requires simultaneous input from all three major signaling pathways.
Triggering the B cell antigen receptor (BCR)1 by antigen or polyclonal activators initiates signaling cascades that lead to various cellular responses (1). Receptor ligation is followed by the phosphorylation of the immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (2-4), which recruit cytosolic proteins and enzymes. Receptor recruitment brings enzymes into proximity of their substrates or kinases, which permits the sequential reactions that form the basis of signaling cascades. Three such cascades stimulated by immunoreceptors involve Ras, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase), and phospholipase C-␥ (PLC-␥) (reviewed in Ref. 1).The activation of PI 3-kinases results in the rapid accumulation of D-3 phosphorylated inositol phospholipids in the cell membrane (5). PI 3-kinase products bind with high specificity to pleckstrin homology domains of signaling proteins, to recruit pleckstrin homology domain-containing enzymes to the plasma membrane and promote their subsequent activation (6, 7). Class IA PI 3-kinases, the major class induced by tyrosine kinase-dependent receptors (6) consist of an SH2 domain-containing adapter p85 subunit that is constitutively bound to a catalytic p110 subunit. Animals lacking the p85 isoform p85␣ show a defect in B cell development, and mature B cells from these animals are impaired in their response to anti-IgM (8, 9). The activation of Ras requires the membrane localization of a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) such as Sos (10). In growth factor-stimulated cells, Sos translocation is mediated by the adapter proteins, Grb2 and Shc (11). BCR triggering causes the association of Sos with the adaptors . The ternary complex of Shc, Grb2, and Sos is associated with the plasma membrane after BCR triggering, consistent wi...