Metabolism & Life: New Insights | ScienceDaily
- Barcelona, Spain - Glycolysis, the process by which cells convert glucose into energy, plays a crucial role not only in providing energy but also in directing cell fate...
- The studies, published in Cell stem Cell, used mouse embryonic stem cells to create embryo models called gastruloids and trunk-like structures.Researchers altered glucose levels to study how glycolysis...
- Kristina Stapornwongkul, a postdoc at EMBL Barcelona, found that blocking glycolysis disrupted the formation of mesoderm (muscle, bone, blood) and endoderm (liver, lungs) tissues.
Uncover the critical role of glycolysis, a key metabolic process, in shaping early embryo development.Scientific studies reveal how this essential function influences cell fate and guides the formation of tissues, impacting the very structure of stem cell-based embryo models.Researchers discovered the balance between glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation dramatically affects outcomes; disrupting it can alter tissue formation,potentially favoring the development of the nervous system. News Directory 3 brings you the latest on this captivating research, including how artificially boosting the relevant signaling pathways can restore normal cell fate decisions. Discover what’s next for understanding this fundamental process.
Study Shows Glycolysis’ Key Role in early Embryo Development
Updated June 22, 2025
Barcelona, Spain – Glycolysis, the process by which cells convert glucose into energy, plays a crucial role not only in providing energy but also in directing cell fate during early embryonic development, according to new research. Scientists at EMBL Barcelona and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, Germany, have discovered that glycolysis influences cell decisions and the structure of stem cell-based embryo models.
The studies, published in Cell stem Cell, used mouse embryonic stem cells to create embryo models called gastruloids and trunk-like structures.Researchers altered glucose levels to study how glycolysis affects the formation of the body plan, which is fundamental for organ development.
Kristina Stapornwongkul, a postdoc at EMBL Barcelona, found that blocking glycolysis disrupted the formation of mesoderm (muscle, bone, blood) and endoderm (liver, lungs) tissues. Instead, more cells became ectoderm, which forms the nervous system. The research indicated that glycolysis activates key signaling pathways that guide cells toward mesoderm and endoderm fates. Artificially boosting these signals restored normal cell fate decisions, even without glycolysis.
Alba Villaronga-Luque and ryan Savill, doctoral students at MPI-CBG, examined why some trunk-like structures more closely resemble natural embryos. They found that the balance between glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation, another energy production process, affected the variability of these stem cell-based embryo models. Structures that relied more on glycolysis developed more similarly to embryos.
Like Stapornwongkul, Villaronga-Luque and Savill found that glycolysis activates signaling pathways that influence cell decisions.Boosting glycolysis with drugs improved the appearance of the trunk-like structures.
“What was most surprising to me was this clear dual role of glycolysis: its bioenergetic function important for growth and its signalling function crucial for cell fate decisions,” Stapornwongkul said.
“by combining quantitative imaging analysis with machine learning, we found key characteristics of the structures that can predict how their development will turn out,” said Savill.
Vikas Trivedi of EMBL Barcelona noted the evolutionary implications.