Nerve growth factor (NGF) binds to two structurally unrelated transmembrane proteins on the surface of PC-12 cells, a 75-kDa glycoprotein with a short cytoplasmic sequence, and the trk protooncogene (pp140c-trk), a protein tyrosine kinase activated by NGF. Immediately after binding to cells, NGF induces changes in serine/threonine phosphorylation of several proteins. We have explored the relative roles of these two NGF binding proteins in mediating the activation of two intracellular kinases that may be responsible for some of these phosphorylations. The raf-1 protooncogene is a serine/threonine kinase activated by several growth factors and oncogenic proteins. Treatment of PC-12 cells with NGF increases the serine and threonine phosphorylation of raf-1 in an anti-raf-1 immunoprecipitate kinase assay. This increased phosphorylation observed in vitro is dose-dependent and transient and is accompanied by the NGF-dependent shift in the mobility of immunoblotted raf-1 on SDS sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, an effect thought to reflect phosphorylation. NGF-dependent activation of raf-1 is not dependent on protein kinase C, since prolonged exposure to phorbol esters under conditions that cause down-regulation of cellular protein kinase C activity has no effect on the NGF response. Expression of pp140c-trk in 3T3 fibroblasts (3T3-c-trk), as evidenced by cross-linking of 125I-NGF to the 140-kDa protein, permits the NGF-dependent activation of raf-1 kinase, detected in the immunoprecipitate kinase assay, anti-raf immunoblot shift on gel electrophoresis, and incorporation of [32P]orthophosphate into the raf-1 protein. The concentration dependence of raf-1 activation is identical in 3T3-c-trk and PC-12 cells, despite the absence of the 75-kDa NGF binding protein in 3T3-c-trk cells. NGF is without effect in untransfected 3T3 cells or in Chinese hamster ovary cells overexpressing p75, although raf-1 is present in these cells. Similarly, the NGF-dependent activation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase is detected in 3T3-c-trk cells, but not in untransfected 3T3 or Chinese hamster ovary cells overexpressing p75. As described for raf-1 activation, the NGF dose responses for MAP kinase activation in 3T3-c-trk and PC-12 cells are virtually superimposable. These data indicate that the activation of these two serine/threonine kinases by NGF is mediated solely by binding to and activating the pp140c-trk receptor.