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FOLATE METABOLISM

A new foe in folate metabolism

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 13 December 2021

This article has been updated

Two studies unmask the essentiality of methionine synthase activity in powering the folate cycle to replenish the tetrahydrofolate pool from 5-methyltetrahydrofolate; this generates nucleotides that support tumour growth. Dietary manipulation alters folate availability and holds implications for anti-cancer therapy response.

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Fig. 1: Methionine synthase replenishes the tetrahydrofolate pool to drive nucleotide synthesis in tumours under physiological folate condition.

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Acknowledgements

W.L.T. is supported by the National Medical Research Council, Singapore (OFIRG17may061, OFIRG19nov-0106, CTGIIT18may0012, NMRC/CIRG/1470/2017, NMRC/OFLCG/002-2018, NMRC/TCR15Jun006), National Research Foundation, Singapore (NRF-NRFF2015-04, NRF-CRP22-2019-0003, NRF-CRP23-2019-0004), Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore, and the Singapore Ministry of Education under its Research Centers of Excellence initiative.

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Correspondence to Wai Leong Tam.

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Wu, Z., Tam, W.L. A new foe in folate metabolism. Nat Metab 3, 1436–1438 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-021-00474-9

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