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Give it or take it: the flux of one‐carbon in cancer cells
Author(s) -
Meiser Johannes,
Vazquez Alexei
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the febs journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.981
H-Index - 204
eISSN - 1742-4658
pISSN - 1742-464X
DOI - 10.1111/febs.13731
Subject(s) - carbon flux , computational biology , sequence (biology) , metabolism , flux (metallurgy) , cancer , biology , carbon fibers , similarity (geometry) , computer science , biochemistry , chemistry , genetics , ecology , artificial intelligence , organic chemistry , algorithm , ecosystem , composite number , image (mathematics)
The sequence of the human genome together with sequence similarity analyses has advanced the discovery of missing steps in the mitochondrial one‐carbon metabolism pathway. That together with the revived interest in cancer metabolism has brought the research on one‐carbon metabolism back under the spotlight. Here, we present a brief review of recent advances in the field of one‐carbon metabolism, with a bias towards its relevance to cell growth and proliferation in human cancers. We will address the requirements of one‐carbon metabolism for biosynthesis and the major sources to satisfy that demand. We will also discuss some recent discoveries indicating a role of one‐carbon metabolism beyond biosynthesis. We conclude with a concise enumeration of some fundamental questions that remain unanswered.