Lysosomal amino acid transporter SLC38A9 signals arginine sufficiency to mTORC1

Abstract

The mTORC1 protein kinase is a complex of proteins that functions to regulate growth and metabolism. Activity of mTORC1 is sensitive to the abundance of amino acids, but how the sensing of amino acids is coupled to the control of mTORC1 has been unclear. Wang et al. searched for predicted membrane proteins that interacted with regulators of mTORC1. They identified a protein currently known only as SLC38A9. Interaction of SLC38A9 with mTORC1 regulators was sensitive to the presence of amino acids. SLC38A9 has sequence similarity to amino acid transporters. Effects of modulation of SLC38A9 in cultured human cells indicate that it may be the sensor that connects the abundance of arginine and leucine to mTORC1 activity.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jan 09, 2015
Source ID
10.1126/science.1257132

Entities

People

  • Bernardo L. Sabatini
  • Choah Kim
  • Christoph Straub
  • David M. Sabatini
  • Elizabeth D. Yuan
  • Gregory A Wyant
  • J. Park
  • Kuang Shen
  • Liron Bar-peled
  • Lynne Chantranupong
  • Molly E. Plovanich
  • Rachel L. Wolfson
  • Roberto Zoncu
  • Shuyu Wang
  • Tim Wang
  • Tony D. Jones
  • William Comb
  • Zhi-yang Tsun

Organizations

  • German Academic Exchange Service
  • Harvard Medical School
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • National Institutes of Health
  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Materials Science.
  • Molecular Genetics