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Manipulation and Analysis of Cell Cycle-Dependent Processes in Budding Yeast
08:13

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Nutritional control of cell growth via TOR signaling in budding yeast

Yuehua Wei1, X F Steven Zheng

  • 1Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, Cancer Institute of New Jersey, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ, USA.

Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)
|August 25, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Nutritional cues regulate cell growth via the target of rapamycin (TOR) pathway. Studies in budding yeast are uncovering the intricate mechanisms of TOR signaling, crucial for understanding human diseases like cancer.

Area of Science:

  • Cellular Biology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Biochemistry

Background:

  • Cell growth is tightly controlled, and its dysregulation is linked to diseases, notably cancer.
  • Nutritional signals influence cell growth by modulating the target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling pathway.
  • TOR is a central serine/threonine kinase forming two complexes, TORC1 and TORC2.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To elucidate the complexity of the TOR signaling pathway.
  • To understand how nutritional cues modulate cell growth through TOR signaling.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing budding yeast as a model organism.
  • Investigating the TOR signaling pathway and its components.

Main Results:

  • TORC1 senses nutrient availability and quantity.
  • TORC1 regulates key cellular processes including translation, ribosome biogenesis, autophagy, nutrient uptake, and metabolism.
  • Budding yeast studies are revealing intricate details of TOR pathway regulation.

Conclusions:

  • The TOR pathway is a critical regulator of cell growth in response to nutritional cues.
  • Understanding TOR signaling in model organisms like yeast provides insights into human disease mechanisms.

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