Amino Acid Limitation Induces the Amino Acid Response (AAR) Pathway in a Time-and Species- Specific Manner

Abstract

Amino acids are critical to life and play central roles both as building blocks of proteins and as intermediates in metabolism. The amino acid response (AAR) pathway is activated by lacking of amino acids (i.e. amino acid starvation). We hypothesized that the activation of AAR pathway might occur in a time-dependent manner in hepatoma cells, which might induce restriction of protein production from DNA. Real-time RT-PCR was used to investigate mRNA expressions during this process. Our results showed that expression of Atf3, Chop, and Asns genes were induced significantly by amino acid deprivation in a time- and species- dependent manner.