Role of tyrosine phosphorylation in modulating cancer cell metabolism

In mammalian cells, tyrosine phosphorylation is one of the main mechanisms responsible for regulating signal transduction pathways and key cellular functions. Moreover, recent studies demonstrated that tyrosine phosphorylation influences the activity of some metabolic enzymes, even if it remains to be clarified whether tyrosine phosphorylation can be considered a general mechanism involving most of the metabolic enzymes or only a subset of these. To elucidate this aspect, we conducted a two-step analysis. First, we analyzed literature to identify all the metabolic enzymes whose activity is affected by tyrosine phosphorylation. Second, we crossed these data with those obtained from the PhosphoSitePlus database analysis. Collected information was used to depict an exhaustive map showing the real spread of tyrosine phosphorylation among metabolic enzymes. In summary, data reported in this review highlight that tyrosine phosphorylation is not a sporadic event but a widespread post-translational modification, which is essential to promote the metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells.