Metabolite Sensing and Signaling
Wang Yiping*, Lei Qunying*
Metabolite sensing and signaling is one of the fundamental biological processes. During evolution, a spectrum of metabolite-sensing mechanism has been developed to perceive fluctuation in extracellular and intercellular metabolites, and to coordinate cellular metabolism with other biological events. Although the metabolic network has been clearly illustrated after decades of study, the molecular mechanism of how cells sense metabolite and the physiological role of metabolite-sensing remain poorly understood. Other than AMPK signaling and mTOR signaling pathways, we still lack an understanding of sensor proteins for different metabolites and the underlying sensing mechanism. Based on current knowledge, a metabolite-sensing pathway comprises metabolite sensor, signal transducer, and effector molecules. Dynamic changes in metabolites can be sensed by cells with the help of metabolite sensor, metabolite-sensing module, and chemical modification of target proteins by metabolites, and mediate physiological responses. Cell employs multiple types of machinery to sense the abundance of sugar, lipid, amino acids, and metabolic intermediates, to collect the metabolic information from the environment and fulfill the metabolic decision-making process and to coordinate the activity of the biologic network. Aberrant metabolite sensing is critical for metabolic reprogramming of cancer, which makes metabolite sensing a promising therapeutic target in cancer metabolism.
CN
EN