Project description:The aim was to identify genes whose transcription is induced or repressed by REPTOR (=CG13624) KO in Drosophila melanogaster male adults. Data are part of the manuscript REPTOR and REPTOR-BP regulate organismal metabolism and transcription downstream of mTORC1 2 biological replicates from 2 conditions: Control adult males / REPTOR KO adult males ; 4 samples
Project description:The aim was to identify genes whose transcription is induced or repressed by REPTOR (=CG13624) KO in Drosophila melanogaster male adults. Data are part of the manuscript REPTOR and REPTOR-BP regulate organismal metabolism and transcription downstream of mTORC1
Project description:Mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling pathway is activated by nutrition sufficiency signals and extracellular growth signals. mTORC1 acts the hub that integrates these inputs to orchestrate number of cellular responses such as translation, nucleotide synthesis, lipid synthesis, and lysosome biogenesis. However, the scaffold protein which specifically regulates any single downstream signaling molecule has not been identified to date. Here we show the heteropentamer protein complex Ragulator is critically required to regulate nuclear translocation of transcription factor EB (TFEB). We established a unique RAW264.7 clone that lacks Ragulator but maintained total mTORC1 activity. The clone showed a markedly enhanced nuclear translocation of TFEB even in nutrition-sufficient state, despite the full mTORC1 activity. As a cellular phenotype, the number of lysosomes were increased by 10 times in the Ragulator-deficient clone. These findings suggest that mTORC1 essentially requires the scaffold Ragulator to regulate the subcellular location of TFEB. Our finding implicates that mTORC1 has other scaffold proteins that regulate downstream molecules specifically.
Project description:In response to a variety of upstream growth and oncogenic signals, the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) promotes anabolic metabolism, in part, through activation of downstream transcription factors. The transcription factor activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) has been previously shown to function downstream of mTORC1 signaling to promote de novo purine synthesis and this activation of ATF4 can occur independently of the canonical activation of ATF4 through the integrated stress response (ISR). Here, we show that ATF4 activation through mTORC1 signaling drives a specific transcriptional program through ATF4 which is comprised of only a subset of genes involved in the broader cellular stress response. We find genes involved in amino acid uptake, biosynthesis, and charging by tRNA synthetases display transcriptional changes downstream of both mTORC1 and ATF4. We discovered that ATF4 activation contributes to the mTORC1-stimulated increase in protein synthesis, highlighting the importance of these transcriptional changes. Additionally, we observe regulation of the cystine transporter SLC7A11 by ATF4. We show that SLC7A11 is important for cell survival and is one mechanism by which cells with active mTORC1 signaling produce glutathione. Thus, ATF4 downstream of mTORC1 signaling regulates protein and glutathione synthesis.
Project description:The mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is involved in nutrient-induced signaling and is a master regulator of cell growth and metabolism. Amino acid-deficient conditions affect mTORC1 activity; however, its upstream regulators warrant further investigation. MicroRNAs are key regulators of nutrient-related responses; therefore, the present study aimed to assess the leucine starvation-induced microRNA profile and its impact on mTORC1 activity. Transcriptome analysis of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2) under leucine deprivation revealed that hsa-miR-663a and hsa-miR-1469 were altered in a transcription factor 4-dependent manner. Overexpression of these microRNAs induced phosphorylation of the ribosomal protein S6 kinase beta-1, a mTORC1 downstream target. Furthermore, hsa-miR-663a downregulated proline-rich Akt1 substrate of 40 kDa (PRAS40), one of the mTORC1 components. In summary, this study provides new insights into the regulatory role of microRNAs in amino acid metabolism and demonstrate alterations in microRNA profile under leucine deprivation in human hepatocytes.
Project description:The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is a master regulator of cell growth that is commonly deregulated in human diseases. Here we find that mTORC1 controls a transcriptional program encoding amino acid transporters and metabolic enzymes through a mechanism also used to regulate protein synthesis. Bioinformatic analysis of mTORC1-responsive mRNAs identified a promoter element recognized by activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4), a key effector of the integrated stress response. ATF4 translation is normally induced by phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 alpha (eIF2α) through a mechanism that requires upstream open reading frames (uORFs) in the ATF4 5' UTR. mTORC1 also controls ATF4 translation through uORFs, but independent of changes in eIF2α phosphorylation. mTORC1 instead employs the 4E-binding protein (4E-BP) family of translation repressors. These results link mTORC1-regulated demand for protein synthesis with an ATF4-regulated transcriptional program that controls the supply of amino acids to the translation machinery.
Project description:The RNA biding protein, LARP1, has been proposed to function downstream of mTORC1 to positively regulate the translation of 5M-bM-^@M-^YTOP mRNAs such as ribosome protein (RP) mRNAs. However, its regulatory roles in mTORC1-mediated translation remain unclear. PAR-CLIP of LARP1 revealed its direct and dynamic interactions with RP mRNAs through pyrimidine-enriched sequences in the 5M-bM-^@M-^YUTR of RP mRNAs when mTOR activity is inhibited. Importantly, this LARP1 is a direct substrate of mTORC1 and S6K1/Akt, and phosphorylated LARP1 scaffolds mTORC1 on translation-competent mRNAs to facilitate 4EBP1 and S6K1 phosphorylation. Ablation of LARP1 causes multiple defects in the processes of translation including abnormal eIF4G1 interaction with RP mRNAs and inefficient RP mRNA elongation thereby reducing ribosome biogenesis and cell proliferation. These observations illustrate that LARP1 functions both an effector and a regulator for local mTORC1 activity, and acts as a molecular switch for ribosome biogenesis by sensing growth factor/nutrient signaling. LARP1-bound RNA regions were sequenced from HEK293T cells under growing or mTOR-inactive conditions. In parallel, mRNA abundance was quantified, in biological duplicate, from HEK293T cells under the same conditions.
Project description:Effector (Teff) and regulatory (Treg) CD4 T cells undergo metabolic reprogramming to support proliferation and immune function. While Phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/mTORC1 signaling induces the glucose transporter Glut1 and aerobic glycolysis for Teff proliferation and inflammatory function, mechanisms that regulate Treg metabolism and function remain unclear. We show that TLR signals that promote Treg proliferation increase Glut1, PI3K/Akt/mTORC1 signaling, and glycolysis. However, TLR-induced mTORC1 signaling also impaired Treg suppressive capacity. Conversely, FoxP3 opposed PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling to reduce glycolysis and anabolic metabolism while increasing oxidative and catabolic metabolism. Importantly, Glut1 expression was sufficient to increase Treg numbers but reduced suppressive capacity and FoxP3 expression. Thus, inflammatory signals and FoxP3 balance mTORC1 signaling and glucose metabolism to control Treg proliferation and suppressive function.
Project description:Hedgehog morphogen GRD-1 regulates C. elegans growth and metabolism downstream of TOR complex 2. Both Hedgehog (Hh) signaling and target of rapamycin complex 2 (TORC2) are evolutionarily conserved pathways that regulate growth and metabolism. In C. elegans, loss of Hh morphogens often leads to developmental arrest, while loss of essential TORC2 component RICTOR (rict-1) causes delayed development, reduced brood, small size, increased fat, and shortened lifespan. Here we report that knockdown of Hh-related morphogen grd-1 causes developmental acceleration rather than arrest by speeding up molting transitions. Further, we show that RNAi to grd-1 not only suppresses the slow growth of rict-1 mutants, but also normalizes multiple abnormalities downstream of TORC2 including restoration of lifespan to near normal and partial rescue of low brood, small body size, and increased fat. Mechanistically, grd-1 slows growth downstream of TORC2 at least in part by increasing transcription of paraquat mediator 1 (PQM-1) target genes. Given the important role of TORC2 in governance of development, these data implicate grd-1 and pqm-1 as critical executors of organismal growth slowing in response to unfavorable growth conditions downstream of the nutrient sensor TORC2 in C. elegans.
Project description:The mechanistic target of rapamycin mTORC1 is a key regulator of cell metabolism and autophagy. Despite widespread clinical use of mTOR inhibitors, the role of mTORC1 in renal tubular function and kidney homeostasis remains elusive. By utilizing constitutive and inducible deletion of conditional Raptor alleles in renal tubular epithelial cells, we discovered that mTORC1 deficiency caused a marked concentrating defect, loss of tubular cells and slowly progressive renal fibrosis. Transcriptional profiling revealed that mTORC1 maintains renal tubular homeostasis by controlling mitochondrial metabolism and biogenesis as well as transcellular transport processes involved in counter-current multiplication and urine concentration. Although mTORC2 partially compensated the loss of mTORC1, exposure to ischemia and reperfusion injury exaggerated the tubular damage in mTORC1-deficient mice, and caused pronounced apoptosis, diminished proliferation rates and delayed recovery. These findings identify mTORC1 as an essential regulator of tubular energy metabolism and as a crucial component of ischemic stress responses. Pharmacological inhibition of mTORC1 likely affects tubular homeostasis, and may be particularly deleterious if the kidney is exposed to acute injury. Furthermore, the combined inhibition of mTORC1 and mTORC2 may increase the susceptibility to renal damage. Raptor fl/fl*KspCre and Raptor fl/fl animals were sacrificed at P14 before the development of an overt functional phenotype. Kidneys were split in half and immediately snap frozen in liquid nitrogen.