Bicarbonate-responsive "soluble" adenylyl cyclase resides, in part, inside the mammalian cell nucleus where it stimulates the activity of nuclear protein kinase A to phosphorylate the cAMP response element binding protein (CREB). The existence of this complete and functional, nuclear-localized cAMP pathway establishes that cAMP signals in intracellular microdomains and identifies an alternate pathway leading to CREB activation.
