Characterization of the bovine brain cytosolic phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase complex

Receptor-linked phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) 3-kinase may generate a second-messenger signal. Here a large-scale purification of the bovine brain enzyme, based on methods developed by Morgan, Smith and Parker [(1990) Eur. J. Biochem. 191, 761-767] and Fry, Panayotou, Dhand, Ruiz-Larrea, Gout, Nguyen, Courtneidge and Waterfield [(1992) Biochem. J. 288, 383-393] is described. The purified enzyme is shown to be a heterodimer of 85 kDa and 110 kDa protein subunits (p85 and p110). Labelling with 5'-p-fluorosulphonylbenzoyladenosine shows that p110 contains an ATP-binding site and confers catalytic activity to the complex. The purified complex is known to be highly phosphorylated on both p85 alpha and p110 subunits, and dephosphorylation generates a deactivated complex, indicating that phosphorylation is an important covalent modification of the complex and may modulate PtdIns 3-kinase activity.