Maintaining cytosolic aspartate levels is a major function of the TCA cycle in proliferating cells

Abstract

Cancer cells rely on glutamine to fuel mitochondria, however it remains unclear whether this is needed for bioenergetic or biosynthetic pathways. Our study suggests that an essential function of mitochondrial glutamine metabolism is to provide aspartate to the cytosol where it can be used for nucleotide and protein synthesis.

Keywords

• glutamine
• cb-839
• tca cycle
• aspartate
• agc1
• aspartate-glutamate carrier
• aralar
• slc25a12
• cancer metabolism
• targeting metabolism
• mitochondrial transporters