Oliver's mTOR Atlas Evidence Platform
Reading level
Mode

Lysosomal positioning coordinates cellular nutrient responses

Korolchuk VI, Saiki S, Lichtenberg M, Siddiqi FH, Roberts EA, Imarisio S, Jahreiss L, Sarkar S, Futter M, Menzies FM, O'Kane CJ, …, Rubinsztein DC · 2011 · Nature Cell Biology · Atlas ID KOR2011

What this study shows

Where the lysosome sits inside the cell helps decide whether mTORC1 is on. With nutrients available, lysosomes move to the cell periphery, physically close to the plasma-membrane signalling modules, and mTORC1 is active there; starvation changes intracellular pH and pulls lysosomes into a cluster around the nucleus, where mTORC1 output falls and autophagy is released. Lysosomal position also sets the rate of autophagosome-lysosome fusion, so one variable acts at both the initiation and the termination end of autophagic flux. This added a spatial axis to mTORC1 regulation that Rag/Ragulator recruitment alone does not account for.

Abstract

ShowHide

mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signalling and macroautophagy (henceforth autophagy) regulate numerous pathological and physiological processes, including cellular responses to altered nutrient levels. However, the mechanisms regulating mTOR and autophagy remain incompletely understood. Lysosomes are dynamic intracellular organelles intimately involved both in the activation of mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) signalling and in degrading autophagic substrates.

Read the full abstract on PubMed →

At a glance

ShowHide
Evidence type M Molecular — cells, biochemistry, structure Marked M because it is molecular or in-vitro work (model: Human cells (HeLa)) rather than a whole-organism health-outcome study. That is often exactly where causal biology gets established -- the code says which system the finding was shown in, and nothing about how good the work is.
Study type5 - Mechanistic / In Vitro
Model systemHuman cells (HeLa)
JournalNature Cell Biology
Year2011
Peer reviewedYes
Record last updated2026-10-01
SourceDOI 10.1038/ncb2204 · PMID 21394080

Where this study fits

How this study connects to the pathway map, open questions, people and other studies in the Atlas.

Pathway relations

Supports

Lysosome required-for mTORC1

Strongest evidence: M (Molecular — cells, biochemistry, structure) · settled in the literature · Status: Proposed

plausible in people, not shown directly

Scoped to amino-acid-driven activation. Live BRET imaging in this corpus (BOU2020) resolves mTOR activity in the cytosol, at the lysosome, in the nucleus and near mitochondria, so mTOR signalling is measurably not one pool. This map draws…

People in the Atlas

  • Viktor I. Korolchuk first author · 5 studies in the Atlas

    Showed that where lysosomes sit inside the cell tunes mTORC1 activity to nutrient supply. His Newcastle lab found that senescent cells can no longer switch mTORC1 off when nutrients or growth factors are withdrawn, and studies how autophagy and mitophagy decline with age

  • David C. Rubinsztein last author · 2 studies in the Atlas

    Showed that rapamycin induces autophagy to clear the toxic protein of Huntington's disease, and that where lysosomes sit inside a cell helps set mTORC1 activity

  • Fiona Menzies 2 studies in the Atlas

    Cell biologist who worked for many years in David Rubinsztein's Cambridge lab on autophagy and the clearance of disease proteins in neurodegeneration

  • Cahir O'Kane 3 studies in the Atlas

    Fruit-fly geneticist at Cambridge who studies how the endoplasmic reticulum is built inside nerve fibres and how its failure causes hereditary spastic paraplegia, and who helped bring Drosophila models into David Rubinsztein's autophagy work

  • Vojo Deretic 1 study in the Atlas

    Studies how autophagy shapes infection, immunity and inflammation, including early work showing that autophagy restricts Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and how galectins and TRIM proteins control mTOR and AMPK.

More: 8 other authors

No profile yet: Saiki S, Lichtenberg M, Siddiqi FH, Roberts EA, Imarisio S, Jahreiss L, Sarkar S, Futter M

Related studies

More related studies

All 212 studies on mTORC1

Topics

LysosomemTORC1Autophagy

Extracted findings

These fields were extracted from the paper with AI assistance and have not been checked against the source. Read them as a pointer into the paper, not as curated claims; where they disagree with the curated summary above, the curated summary stands.

InterventionNutrient starvation / intracellular pH change; manipulation of lysosome positioning
TargetLysosome positioning / mTORC1 / autophagy
ModelHuman cell line (HeLa)
EffectPeripheral lysosomes accompany active mTORC1; perinuclear clustering on starvation lowers mTORC1 signalling and raises autophagosome formation and fusion.

Cite this paper

ShowHide 
Korolchuk, V. I., Saiki, S., Lichtenberg, M., Siddiqi, F. H., Roberts, E. A., Imarisio, S., Jahreiss, L., Sarkar, S., Futter, M., Menzies, F. M., O'Kane, C. J., Deretic, V., & Rubinsztein, D. C. (2011). Lysosomal positioning coordinates cellular nutrient responses. Nature Cell Biology. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2204

@article{KOR2011,
  author       = {Korolchuk, V. I. and Saiki, S. and Lichtenberg, M. and Siddiqi, F. H. and Roberts, E. A. and Imarisio, S. and Jahreiss, L. and Sarkar, S. and Futter, M. and Menzies, F. M. and O'Kane, C. J. and Deretic, V. and Rubinsztein, D. C.},
  title        = {{Lysosomal positioning coordinates cellular nutrient responses}},
  journal      = {Nature Cell Biology},
  year         = {2011},
  doi          = {10.1038/ncb2204},
  note         = {PMID: 21394080},
}

Cite this Atlas record

The record is the Atlas's own work — the evidence label, the extracted findings and the links. It is cited as part of the dataset, not as the paper. 

Barton, O. (2026). Oliver's mTOR Atlas (record KOR2011) [Data set]. https://mtor-atlas.org/study/KOR2011/ · Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22059963

@misc{atlas_KOR2011,
  author       = {Barton, Oliver},
  title        = {{Oliver's mTOR Atlas}, record KOR2011},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://mtor-atlas.org/study/KOR2011/},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22059963}
}
Was this page useful?