showed essentially the same kinetic properties; V and apparent K , were determined to be 0.16 pmol min-' mg-' and 30 pM, respectively. At first, tryptic phosphopeptides were prepared at the early stage of phosphorylation and purified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Through these analyses, four radioactive peptides were isolated. When protein kinase C was employed, phosphorylation was observed on all four peptides in a Ca2+/ phospholipid-dependent manner. Irrespective of the protein kinase employed, phosphate incorporation into these peptides increased linearly with time; the peptide concentration did not affect the ratio of phosphate distribution into these four peptides.Analysis of amino acid composition and phosphoamino acid of radioactive peptides obtained after extensive phosphorylation showed that phosphates were incorporated into Ser-4, Ser-5, Ser-9 and Ser-I 1. The latter three serine residues were major phosphorylated sites. When rat liver 40-S ribosomal subunits were employed as substrate for protein kinases C and M, a radioactive protein with I I~, , ,~~ = 31000, which corresponded to S6 protein, was detected on an autoradiogram of a sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide slab gel. The rate of phosphorylation with protein kinase M was twice as fast as that with protein kinase C. The elution profile of radioactive tryptic peptides in HPLC suggest that phosphorylation occurred on the sites in S6 protein corresponding to Ser-5, Ser-9 and Ser-11 as major sites and Ser-4 as the minor one. These results indicate that protein kinase C has an ability to recognize at least four sites derived from hormone-dependent phosphorylation sites in ribosomal protein S6 irrespective of the mode of activation of this enzyme.Since the first description of Ca2 +/phospholipid-dependent protein kinase (protein kinase C) in rat brain by Takai et al. [I], experimental results have accumulated indicating that this enzyme is involved in various cellular functions and control of cell proliferation [2]. Reflecting the extensive research on this protein kinase, the number of functional proteins and enzymes proposed as substrate have been increasing over the past few years [2]. Phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 by protein kinase C was first reported by Le Peuch et al. [3] and described later by Parker et al. [4]. In parallel with these in vitro studies, phosphorylation of S6 protein was also observed in various cellular systems after treatment with tumor-promoting phorbol esters such as 12-0-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate [5-91. It has been established that this phorbol ester activates protein kinase C by increasing the Abbreviations. R ' -A13, synthetic peptide Arg-Arg-Leu-Ser-SerLeu-Arg-Ala-Ser-Thr-Ser-Lys-Ala; P-Ser, phosphoserine; P-Thr, phosphothreonine.Enzymes. Protein kinase C (EC 2.7.