Biozentrum, University of Basel, CH4056 Basel, Switzerland.
School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102 Fujian, China.
Cell Metab. 2020 Mar 3;31(3):472-492. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.01.015.
The AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) and TOR (target-of-rapamycin) pathways are interlinked, opposing signaling pathways involved in sensing availability of nutrients and energy and regulation of cell growth. AMPK (Yin, or the "dark side") is switched on by lack of energy or nutrients and inhibits cell growth, while TOR (Yang, or the "bright side") is switched on by nutrient availability and promotes cell growth. Genes encoding the AMPK and TOR complexes are found in almost all eukaryotes, suggesting that these pathways arose very early during eukaryotic evolution. During the development of multicellularity, an additional tier of cell-extrinsic growth control arose that is mediated by growth factors, but these often act by modulating nutrient uptake so that AMPK and TOR remain the underlying regulators of cellular growth control. In this review, we discuss the evolution, structure, and regulation of the AMPK and TOR pathways and the complex mechanisms by which they interact.
AMPK（AMP 激活的蛋白激酶）和 TOR（雷帕霉素靶蛋白）途径相互关联，是参与感知营养物质和能量的可用性以及调节细胞生长的相反信号通路。AMPK（阴，或“暗面”）在缺乏能量或营养物质时被激活，并抑制细胞生长，而 TOR（阳，或“亮面”）在营养物质可用时被激活，并促进细胞生长。编码 AMPK 和 TOR 复合物的基因几乎存在于所有真核生物中，这表明这些途径在真核生物进化的早期就出现了。在多细胞生物的发育过程中，出现了一层额外的细胞外生长控制，由生长因子介导，但这些因子通常通过调节营养物质的摄取来发挥作用，因此 AMPK 和 TOR 仍然是细胞生长控制的基础调节剂。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了 AMPK 和 TOR 途径的进化、结构和调节，以及它们相互作用的复杂机制。
