Sugar breakdown product FBP drives cell movement, study finds
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- RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau researchers discovered that fructose 1,6-bisphosphate (FBP), an intermediate product of sugar breakdown, also functions as a signal for cytoskeleton and adhesion remodeling — not merely a fuel molecule
- Professor Tanja Maritzen's team screened 18,000 human proteins via siRNA suppression and identified aldolase A as the metabolic enzyme linking glycolysis to focal adhesion dynamics
- First author Lennart Hoffmann showed that FBP activates the protein Rac1, which generates new cytoskeletal elements at the cell's front, propelling the membrane forward while new adhesion points anchor it
- The findings, published in Nature Cell Biology, carry implications for metastatic cancer cell migration, wound healing, embryonic development, immune cell movement, blood vessel formation, and insulin secretion
- The work was done in collaboration with the Leibniz Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie's Screening and Cellular Imaging Unit, combining siRNA screening with automated image analysis of stained adhesion structures
Why it matters: Maritzen's team provides the first clear mechanistic link between a specific glycolytic intermediate (FBP) and the cell-movement machinery via Rac1 activation — a suspected connection now grounded in evidence from an 18,000-protein screen. For cancer researchers, this identifies aldolase A and FBP levels as candidate control points for metastatic spread, while developmental and wound-healing biologists gain a concrete feedback pathway tying energy status to migration decisions.
