Abstract
Cell size is amenable by genetic and environmental factors. The highly conserved nutrient-responsive Target of Rapamycin (TOR) signaling pathway regulates cellular metabolic status and growth in response to numerous inputs. Timing and duration of TOR pathway activity is pivotal for both cell mass built up as well as cell cycle progression and is controlled and fine-tuned by the abundance and quality of nutrients, hormonal signals, growth factors, stress, and oxygen. TOR kinases function within two functionally and structurally discrete multiprotein complexes, TORC1 and TORC2, that are implicated in temporal and spatial control of cell size and growth respectively; however, recent data indicate that such functional distinctions are much more complex. Here, we briefly review roles of the two complexes in cellular growth and cytoarchitecture in various experimental model systems.
Highlights
The Target of Rapamycin (TOR) is an evolutionarily conserved Ser/Thr-protein kinase functioning as the heart of signaling networks toward nutrient and hormonal sensing
Tor genes together with the FKBP12 homolog fpr1 were first isolated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Heitman et al, 1991; Kunz et al, 1993) as the mediators of the toxic effects of sirolimus or rapamycin, a macrolide from Streptomyces hygroscopicus bacteria living within the soil on the Rapa Nui or Easter Island (Sehgal et al, 1975; Sehgal, 2003)
TOR kinases are found in two distinct protein complexes, termed TOR complex 1 (TORC1) and TOR complex 2 (TORC2) (Wullschleger et al, 2006; Laplante and Sabatini, 2012; Huang and Fingar, 2014)
Summary
Cell size is amenable by genetic and environmental factors. The highly conserved nutrient-responsive Target of Rapamycin (TOR) signaling pathway regulates cellular metabolic status and growth in response to numerous inputs. Timing and duration of TOR pathway activity is pivotal for both cell mass built up as well as cell cycle progression and is controlled and fine-tuned by the abundance and quality of nutrients, hormonal signals, growth factors, stress, and oxygen. TOR kinases function within two functionally and structurally discrete multiprotein complexes, TORC1 and TORC2, that are implicated in temporal and spatial control of cell size and growth respectively; recent data indicate that such functional distinctions are much more complex. We briefly review roles of the two complexes in cellular growth and cytoarchitecture in various experimental model systems
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