Figure 1

Serine biosynthetic pathway. In vivo shRNA lethality screen and metabolomic profiling independently identified 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) to be essential in a subset of cancer cells that overexpress this enzyme. PHGDH plays a key role in serine biosynthesis, and cancer cells with high PHGDH activity might be addicted to this pathway for their viability. αKG, α-ketoglutarate; NADH, reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide; PSAT1, phosphoserine aminotransferase 1; PSPH, phosphoserine phosphatase; TCA, tricarboxylic acid.