Credit: Image: Courtesy of Dr. Reuben Shaw, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
In response to energy stress, AMPK, which acts like a gas gauge by sensing how much energy a cell has, puts a damper on cell proliferation. It muffles a cellular protein called raptor (shown in green), which keeps starving cells from dividing. Nuclei are shown in blue and actin, which forms an integral part of the cellular architecture, is shown in red.