Cell signaling pathways induce Sp1 phosphorylation, which allows for the upregulation of Sp1-dependent genes that control cell growth, cell-cycle progression, survival and tumorigenesis. Sp1 activity is under constitutive repression through the sumoylation of Lysine-16, and Lysine-16 dependent N-terminal cleavage relieves this repression. The present investigation probes further into the mechanisms of Sp1 processing, desumoylation, and degradation to reveal that phosphorylation is the major driving force behind these coupled activities. The first 7 amino acid residues of Sp1 enhance the accessibility of Lysine-16 to the homologous modifiers SUMO-1 and ubiquitin; and Serine-7 specifically enhances ubiquitinylation. Our data show that Serine-59 regulates Sp1 proteolytic processing, and thereby provides a mechanism for the upregulation of Sp1-dependent transcription by CyclinA/cdk2 phosphorylation of Serine-59. Sp1 activators, forskolin and PMA, enhance Sp1 processing in MCFE cells through distinct signaling pathways. PKC, ERK, and ERBB2 kinase inhibitors suppress PMA induction of Sp1 and the specific isozyme PKCalpha enhances Sp1 cleavage. Sp1 contains several NFkappaB2-like proteolytic processing components including a functional phosphorylation-dependent beta-TrCP binding motif. From these data, we propose a model by which cell-cycle and mitotic kinases induce Sp1 proteolytic processing resulting in a desumoylated, derepressed and unstable Sp1 product.