title: Threonine deprivation rapidly activates the system A amino acid transporter in primary cultures of rat neurons from the essential amino acid sensor in the anterior piriform cortex.
abstract: Omnivores show recognition of essential (indispensable) amino acid deficiency by changing their feeding behavior within 20 min, yet the cellular mechanisms of amino acid sensation in eukaryotes are poorly understood. The anterior piriform cortex (APC) of the brain in rats or its analog in birds likely houses the in vivo amino acid chemosensor. Because amino acid transporters adapt rapidly to essential amino acid deficiency in several cell models, we hypothesized that activation of electrogenic amino acid transport in APC neurons might contribute to the function of the amino acid sensor. We evaluated transport systems in primary cultures of neurons from the APC, hippocampus and cerebellum, or glia, incubated in complete or threonine-devoid (deficient) medium. After 10 min in deficient medium, uptake of threonine or a system A-selective substrate, methyl amino-isobutyric acid, was increased 60% in APC neurons only (P < 0.05). These results demonstrated upregulation of system A, an electrogenic amino acid-sodium symporter. This depletion-induced activation required sodium, intact intracellular trafficking, and phosphorylation of signal transduction-related kinases. Efflux studies showed that other transporter types were functional in the APC; they appeared to be altered dynamically in threonine-deficient cells in response to rapid increases in system A activity. The present data provided support for the chemical sensitivity of the APC and its role as the brain area housing the indispensable amino acid chemosensor. They also showed a region-specific, phosphorylation-dependent activation of the system A transporter in the brain in response to threonine deficiency.
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Research Agronomique, Unité de Physiologie de la Nutrition et du Comportement Alimentaire, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blais
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Huneau
authors.forename: Linda J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Magrum
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Koehnle
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Sharp
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tomé
authors.forename: Dorothy W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Gietzen
mesh_terms: D026924:Amino Acid Transport System A / Q000378:metabolism*; D000601:Amino Acids, Essential / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D003470:Culture Media; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013912:Threonine / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D026924:Amino Acid Transport System A; D000601:Amino Acids, Essential; D003470:Culture Media; D013912:Threonine