Ya-Ping Jiang

-driven murine PDAC. Therefore, GLUL-mediated glutamine biosynthesis couples the TCA cycle with nitrogen anabolism and plays a critical role in PDAC.

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved cell renewal process that depends on phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns(3)P). In metazoans, autophagy is inhibited by PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3), the product of class IA PI3Ks, which mediates the activation of the Akt-TOR kinase cascade. However, the precise function of class IA PI3Ks in autophagy remains undetermined. Class IA PI3Ks are heterodimeric proteins consisting of an 85-kD regulatory subunit and a 110-kD catalytic subunit. Here we show that the class IA p110-β catalytic subunit is a positive regulator of autophagy. Genetic deletion of p110-β results in impaired autophagy in mouse embryonic fibroblasts, liver, and heart. p110-β does not promote autophagy by affecting the Akt-TOR pathway. Rather, it associates with the autophagy-promoting Vps34-Vps15-Beclin 1-Atg14L complex and facilitates the generation of cellular PtdIns(3)P. Our results unveil a previously unknown function for p110-β as a positive regulator of autophagy in multicellular organisms.

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) promotes increased protein synthesis required for cell growth. It has been suggested that phosphatidic acid, produced upon activation of phospholipase D (PLD), is a common mediator of growth factor activation of mTOR signaling. We used Rat-1 fibroblasts expressing the alpha(1A) adrenergic receptor to study if this G(q)-coupled receptor uses PLD to regulate mTOR signaling. Phenylephrine (PE) stimulation of the alpha(1A) adrenergic receptor induced mTOR autophosphorylation at Ser2481 and phosphorylation of two mTOR effectors, 4E-BP1 and p70 S6 kinase. These PE-induced phosphorylations were greatly reduced in cells depleted of intracellular Ca(2+). PE activation of PLD was also inhibited in Ca(2+)-depleted cells. Incubation of cells with 1-butanol to inhibit PLD signaling attenuated PE-induced phosphorylation of mTOR, 4E-BP1 and p70 S6 kinase. By contrast, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced phosphorylation of these proteins was not blocked by Ca(2+) depletion or 1-butanol treatment. These results suggest that the alpha(1A) adrenergic receptor promotes mTOR signaling via a pathway that requires an increase in intracellular Ca(2+) and activation of PLD. The PDGF receptor, by contrast, appears to activate mTOR by a distinct pathway that does not require Ca(2+) or PLD.