Insulin-induced differentiation of 3T3 L1 cells can be mimicked by expression of transfected ras oncogenes but is completely blocked by expression of dominant negative Ras mutants, demonstrating that Ras proteins mediate insulin signaling in these mammalian cells. In contrast, transfection of tyrosine kinase oncogenes including trk and src dose not result in adipocytic differentiation. Transfected raf-1 oncogenes induce partial adipocytic differentiation, while dominant negative raf mutants block partially the insulin-induced differentiation process. Exposure of 3T3 L1 cells to insulin results in formation of the active Ras-GTP complex without GAP tyrosine phosphorylation. Insulin treatment of untransfected 3T3 L1 cells also induced quick activation of cytosolic 42 kDa mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and a 90 kDa S6 kinase (RSK). The activation of these cytosolic serine-threonine kinases was also mimicked by Ras expression (in the absence of insulin) in the same cells transfected with inducible ras oncogenes. Furthermore, insulin-induced activation of MAPK and RSK could be blocked by expression of a transfected, inducible dominant negative Ras mutant (N17). These results indicate that Ras proteins are obligatory intermediates in the activation of cytosolic ERKs by insulin. Insulin treatment of 3T3 L1 cells or expression of transfected ras oncogenes resulted also in hyperphosphorylation of cellular Raf-1. Insulin-induced Raf hyperphosphorylation was inhibited by expression of an inducible, dominant negative Ras mutant (N17). Interestingly, however, expression of transfected raf oncogenes did not induce MAPK or RSK activation, and the insulin-induced activation of these kinases was not blocked by expression of transfected dominant negative raf mutants. These results suggest a functional dissociation between Raf-1 and MAPK/RSK activation in insulin/Ras signaling pathways leading to 3T3 L1 differentiation and are consistent with Raf-1 kinase acting in a parallel pathway to the MAPK/RSK pathway after Ras activation in these cells.