Figure 3.

Nutrient-sensing HBP regulates pluripotency and differentiation. A branch of glycolysis fuels the HBP to produce UDP-GlcNAc. Pathway flux depends on levels of macromolecular metabolism, including carbohydrate, lipid, nucleotide, and amino acid biosynthesis. UDP-GlcNAc is a key intermediate for post-translational modification of Ser and Thr residues. The catalytic activity of OGT and OGA determines the level of protein O-GlcNAcylation. This modification influences pluripotency and differentiation gene networks via transcriptional and epigenetic machinery.