Phosphoinositide 3-kinase signalling in the nucleolus

The phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling pathway plays key roles in many cellular processes and is altered in many diseases. The function and mode of action of the pathway have mostly been elucidated in the cytoplasm. However, many of the components of the PI3K pathway are also present in the nucleus at specific sub-nuclear sites including nuclear speckles, nuclear lipid islets and the nucleolus. Nucleoli are membrane-less subnuclear structures where ribosome biogenesis occurs. Processes leading to ribosome biogenesis are tightly regulated to maintain protein translation capacity of cells. This review focuses on nucleolar PI3K signalling and how it regulates rRNA synthesis, as well as on the identification of downstream phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)trisphosphate effector proteins.