Concurrent interactome and metabolome analysis reveals role of AKT1 in central carbon metabolism

Signal transduction not only initiates entry into the cell cycle, but also reprograms the cell's metabolism. To control abnormalities in cell proliferation, both the aspects should be taken care of, thus pleiotropic signaling molecules are considered as crucial modulators. Considering this, we investigated the role of AKT1 in central carbon metabolism. The role of AKT1 has already been established in the process of cell cycle, but its contribution to the central carbon metabolism is sparsely studied.

To address this, we combined the metabolomics and proteomics approaches. In accordance to our hypothesis, we found that the AKT1 kinase activity is regulating the levels of acetyl CoA through pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. Further, the decreased levels of acetyl CoA and dependency of acetyl CoA acetyl transferase protein on AKT1 kinase activity was also found to perturb the synthesis rate of palmitic acid which is a representative of fatty acid. This was analyzed in the present study using lipid labeling method through mass spectrometry.