The atypical protein kinase C (PKC) isotypes (λ/ιPKC and ζPKC) have been shown to be critically involved in important cell functions such as proliferation and survival. Previous studies have demonstrated that the atypical PKCs are stimulated by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and are required for the activation of NF-κB by this cytokine through a mechanism that most probably involves the phosphorylation of IκB. The inability of these PKC isotypes to directly phosphorylate IκB led to the hypothesis that ζPKC may use a putative IκB kinase to functionally inactivate IκB. Recently several groups have molecularly characterized and cloned two IκB kinases (IKKα and IKKβ) which phosphorylate the residues in the IκB molecule that serve to target it for ubiquitination and degradation. In this study we have addressed the possibility that different PKCs may control NF-κB through the activation of the IKKs. We report here that αPKC as well as the atypical PKCs bind to the IKKs in vitro and in vivo. In addition, overexpression of ζPKC positively modulates IKKβ activity but not that of IKKα, whereas the transfection of a ζPKC dominant negative mutant severely impairs the activation of IKKβ but not IKKα in TNF-α-stimulated cells. We also show that cell stimulation with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate activates IKKβ, which is entirely dependent on the activity of αPKC but not that of the atypical isoforms. In contrast, the inhibition of αPKC does not affect the activation of IKKβ by TNF-α. Interestingly, recombinant active ζPKC and αPKC are able to stimulate in vitro the activity of IKKβ but not that of IKKα. In addition, evidence is presented here that recombinant ζPKC directly phosphorylates IKKβ in vitro, involving Ser177 and Ser181. Collectively, these results demonstrate a critical role for the PKC isoforms in the NF-κB pathway at the level of IKKβ activation and IκB degradation.