The Inositol Phosphate System—A Coordinator of Metabolic Adaptability

Abstract

All cells rely on nutrients to supply energy and carbon building blocks to support cellular processes. Over time, eukaryotes have developed increasingly complex systems to integrate infor-mation about available nutrients with the internal state of energy stores to activate the necessary processes to meet the immediate and ongoing needs of the cell. One such system is the network of soluble and membrane‐associated inositol phosphates that coordinate the cellular responses to nutrient uptake and utilization from growth factor signaling to energy homeostasis. In this review, we discuss the coordinated interactions of the inositol polyphosphates, inositol pyrophosphates, and phosphoinositides in major metabolic signaling pathways to illustrate the central importance of the inositol phosphate signaling network in nutrient responses.