This gene encodes the founding member of the Akt serine-threonine protein kinase gene family that also includes Akt2 and Akt3. This kinase is a major downstream effector of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway that mediates the effects of various growth factors such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). It is activated through recruitment to cellular membranes by PI3K lipid products and by phosphorylation by 3-phosphoinositide dependent kinase-1. It then further phosphorylates different downstream proteins in response to various extracellular signals and thus plays a pivotal role in mediating a variety of cellular processes, such as glucose metabolism, glycogen biosynthesis, protein synthesis and turn over, inflammatory response, cell survival (anti-apoptosis) and development. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2009]