Cells Signaling Nutrients

How mutations in mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) proteins impact the cell cycle of Candida albicans was investigated in this study. Using genetic null mutants targeting ETC complexes I (CI), III (CIII), and IV (CIV), the cell cycle stages (G0/G1, S-phase, and G2/M) were analyzed via fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Four CI null mutants exhibited distinct alterations, including extended S- phase, shortened G2/M population and a reduction in cells size exceeding 10 μM. Conversely, CIII mutants showed an increased population in G1/G0 phase...

Salinity is one of the substantial threats to plant productivity and could be escorted by other stresses such as heat and drought. It impairs critical biological processes, such as photosynthesis, energy, and water/nutrient acquisition, ultimately leading to cell death when stress intensity becomes uncured. Therefore, plants deploy several proper processes to overcome such hostile circumstances. Grapevine is one of the most important crops worldwide that is relatively salt-tolerant and preferentially cultivated in hot and semi-arid areas...

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are plant steroid hormones that control growth and stress responses. In the context of development, BRs play diverse roles in controlling cell differentiation and tissue patterning. The vascular system, which is essential for transporting water and nutrients throughout the plant body, initially establishes a tissue pattern during primary development and then dramatically increases the number of vascular cells during secondary development. This complex developmental process is properly regulated by a network consisting of various hormonal signalling pathways...

UNLABELLED: Cancer stem/tumor-initiating cells display stress tolerance and metabolic flexibility to survive in a harsh environment with limited nutrient and oxygen availability. The molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon could provide targets to prevent metabolic adaptation and halt cancer progression. Here, we showed in cultured cells and live human surgical biopsies of non-small cell lung cancer that nutrient stress drives the expression of the epithelial cancer stem cell marker integrin αvβ3 via upregulation of the β3 subunit, resulting in a metabolic reprogramming cascade that allows tumor cells to thrive despite a nutrient-limiting environment...

The F-box proteins in fungi perform diverse functions including regulation of cell cycle, circadian clock, development, signal transduction and nutrient sensing. Genome-wide analysis revealed 10 F-box genes in Puccinia triticina, the causal organism for the leaf rust disease in wheat and were characterized using in silico approaches for revealing phylogenetic relationships, gene structures, gene ontology, protein properties, sequence analysis and gene expression studies. Domain analysis predicted functional domains like WD40 and LRR at C-terminus along with the obvious presence of F-box motif in N-terminus...

BACKGROUND: Ischemic stroke is one of the prevalent neurodegenerative disorders; it is generally characterized by sudden abruption of blood flow due to thromboembolism and vascular abnormalities, eventually impairing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the brain for its metabolic needs. Oxygen-glucose deprived conditions provoke the release of excessive glutamate, which causes excitotoxicity. SUMMARY: Recent studies suggest that circulatory angiotensin-II (Ang-II) has an imperative role in initiating detrimental events through binding central angiotensin 1 (AT1) receptors...

BACKGROUND: Fatty acids synthesis and metabolism (FASM)-driven lipid mobilization is essential for energy production during nutrient shortages. However, the molecular characteristics, physiological function and clinical prognosis value of FASM-associated gene signatures in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain elusive. METHODS: The Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO), the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database were utilized to acquire transcriptome data and clinical information of HCC patients...

The cAMP-PKA signaling pathway plays a crucial role in sensing and responding to nutrient availability in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. This pathway monitors external glucose levels to control cell growth and sexual differentiation. However, the temporal dynamics of the cAMP-PKA pathway in response to external stimuli remains unclear mainly due to the lack of tools to quantitatively visualize the activity of the pathway. Here, we report the development of the kinase translocation reporter (KTR)-based biosensor spPKA-KTR1...

While there is generally no consensus about how nutrients determine milk synthesis in the mammary gland, it is likely that the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) plays a role as a key integrator of nutritional and mitogenic signals that can influence a multitude of catabolic and anabolic pathways. The objectives of this study were to evaluate acute changes (<24 h) in translational signaling, in addition to chronic changes (14 d) in mammary gland structure and composition, in response to a severe feed restriction...

Due to their sessile lifestyle, plants need to optimize their growth in order to adapt to ever-changing environments. Plants receive stimuli from the environment and convert them into cellular responses. Brassinosteroids (BRs), as growth-promoting steroid hormones, play a significant role in the tradeoff between growth and environmental responses. Here, we provide a comprehensive summary for understanding the crosstalk between BR and various environmental stresses, including water availability, temperature fluctuations, salinization, nutrient deficiencies and diseases...

Browning of white adipose tissue is a novel approach for the management of obesity and obesity-related metabolic disorders. Kaempferol (KPF) is a common dietary nutrient found abundantly in many fruits and vegetables and has been shown to have the potential to regulate lipid metabolism. However, the detailed mechanism by which it affects the browning of white adipose tissue remains unclear. In the present study, we sought to determine how KPF induces adipocytes to undergo a browning transformation by establishing a primary adipocyte model and an obese mouse model...

Ischemic strokes originate whenever the circulation to the brain is interrupted, either temporarily or permanently, resulting in a lack of oxygen and other nutrients. This deprivation primarily impacts the cerebral cortex and striatum, resulting in neurodegeneration. Several experimental stroke models have demonstrated that the potent antioxidant quercetin offers protection against stroke-related damage. Multiple pathways have been associated with quercetin's ability to safeguard the brain from ischemic injury...

One of the key modes of microbial metabolism occurring in the gut microbiome is fermentation. This energy-yielding process transforms common macromolecules like polysaccharides and amino acids into a wide variety of chemicals, many of which are relevant to microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions. Analogous transformations occur during the production of fermented foods, resulting in an abundance of bioactive metabolites. In foods, the products of fermentation can influence food safety and preservation, nutrient availability, and palatability and, once consumed, may impact immune and metabolic status, disease expression, and severity...

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) can alter the availability of background nutrients by affecting the proliferation of heterotrophic bacteria, which exerts a notable influence on algal growth and metabolism. However, the mechanism of how allochthonous DOC (aDOC) precipitates shifts in bacterial-algal interactions and modulates the occurrence of cyanobacteria blooms remains inadequately elucidated. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between bacteria and algae under aDOC stimulation. We found that excess aDOC triggered the breakdown and reestablishment of the equilibrium between Microcystis and heterotrophic bacteria...

BACKGROUND: The metabolically demanding nature of immune response requires nutrients to be preferentially directed towards the immune system at the expense of peripheral tissues. We study the mechanisms by which this metabolic reprograming occurs using the parasitoid infection of Drosophila larvae. To overcome such an immune challenge hemocytes differentiate into lamellocytes, which encapsulate and melanize the parasitoid egg. Hemocytes acquire the energy for this process by expressing JAK/STAT ligands upd2 and upd3, which activates JAK/STAT signaling in muscles and redirects carbohydrates away from muscles in favor of immune cells...

T cells are an important component of adaptive immunity and protect the host from infectious diseases and cancers. However, uncontrolled T cell immunity may cause autoimmune disorders. In both situations, antigen-specific T cells undergo clonal expansion upon the engagement and activation of antigens. Cellular metabolism is reprogrammed to meet the increase in bioenergetic and biosynthetic demands associated with effector T cell expansion. Metabolites not only serve as building blocks or energy sources to fuel cell growth and expansion but also regulate a broad spectrum of cellular signals that instruct the differentiation of multiple T cell subsets...

A cell committed to proliferation must reshape its metabolism to enable robust yet balanced production of building blocks for the assembly of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and other macromolecules, from which two functional daughter cells can be produced. The metabolic remodeling associated with proliferation is orchestrated by a number of pro-proliferative signaling nodes, which include phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K), the RAS family of small GTPases, and transcription factor c-myc In metazoan cells, these signals are activated in a paracrine manner via growth factor-mediated activation of receptor (or receptor-associated) tyrosine kinases...

Three-dimensional (3D) in vitro models, superior in simulating physiological conditions compared to 2D models, offer intricate cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions with diverse signaling cues like fluid shear stress and growth factor gradients. Yet, developing 3D tissue barrier models, specifically perfusable luminal structures with dense, multicellular constructs maintained for extended durations with oxygen and nutrients, remains a technical challenge. Here, we describe a molding-based approach for the fabrication of free-standing, perfusable, high cellular density tissue constructs using a self-assembly and migration process to form functional barriers...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) subsists in a nutrient-deregulated microenvironment, making it particularly susceptible to treatments that interfere with cancer metabolism 1 2 . For example, PDAC utilizes and is dependent on high levels of autophagy and other lysosomal processes 3-5 . Although targeting these pathways has shown potential in preclinical studies, progress has been hampered by the challenge of identifying and characterizing favorable targets for drug development 6 . Here, we characterize PIKfyve, a lipid kinase integral to lysosomal functioning 7 , as a novel and targetable vulnerability in PDAC...

Metabolic reprogramming in cancer occurs due to interaction of cells with the surrounding tumor microenvironment. In the microenvironment of solid tumors, nutrient deprivation is induced by high consumption of nutrients and insufficient vasculature. Tumor cells alter their metabolic strategies to adapt to the microenvironment. To understand the role of these metabolic changes, in the current study, we have mimicked nutrient deprivation condition in vitro to evaluate the associated signaling pathways in breast cancer cells...