Continuous sensing of nutrients and growth factors by the mTORC1-TFEB axis
What this study shows
Live imaging of single MCF10A cells shows mTORC1-TFEB signalling adjusts continuously to amino acids and insulin, given alone, one after another or together; at physiological amino acid levels TFEB, AMPK and AKT activity fluctuate in step, and these graded changes track protein synthesis rate through a distributed set of mTORC1 effectors.
Abstract
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mTORC1 senses nutrients and growth factors and phosphorylates downstream targets, including the transcription factor TFEB, to coordinate metabolic supply and demand. These functions position mTORC1 as a central controller of cellular homeostasis, but the behavior of this system in individual cells has not been well characterized. Here, we provide measurements necessary to refine quantitative models for mTORC1 as a metabolic controller.
Read the full abstract on PubMed →At a glance
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| Evidence type | M Molecular — cells, biochemistry, structure Marked M because it is molecular or in-vitro work (model: Human MCF10A cells (live single-cell imaging, fluorescent TFEB fusions)) 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 type | 5 - Mechanistic / In Vitro |
| Model system | Human MCF10A cells (live single-cell imaging, fluorescent TFEB fusions) |
| Journal | eLife |
| Year | 2023 |
| Peer reviewed | Yes |
| Record last updated | 2026-10-01 |
| Source | DOI 10.7554/eLife.74903 · PMID 37698461 · Free full text (PMC10547473) |
Where this study fits
How this study connects to the pathway map, open questions, people and other studies in the Atlas.
People in the Atlas
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Quantitative cell biologist who trained in John Albeck's lab at UC Davis, where live single-cell imaging showed that the mTORC1-TFEB signalling axis tracks nutrients and growth factors continuously, and then moved to UCLA as a postdoctoral fellow
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Measures mTORC1, AMPK and other metabolic signals in single living cells, following how they change over minutes and hours
More: 4 other authors
No profile yet: Kosaisawe N, Pargett M, Patankar M, DeCuzzi N
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Topics
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.
| Intervention | Amino acids and insulin, alone, sequential or combined (live-cell stimulation) |
| Target | mTORC1 / TFEB |
| Model | Human cell line |
| Effect | mTORC1-TFEB activity changes continuously and fluctuates with nutrient availability in single cells |
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