{
  "id": 4676066,
  "title": "The mTOR pathway drives daily physiology",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/31/the-mtor-pathway-drives-daily-physiology",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-31T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.28.747564v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Daily rhythms in mammalian physiology are primarily driven by the mechanistic target-of-rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, according to recent research. Circadian rhythms in transcription are established by well-defined genetic circuits, but the exact process of how molecular clocks regulate daily variations in physiology remains unclear. The mTOR complex integrates both systemic and circadian timing cues into the cellular timekeeping machinery. This study reveals that mTOR activity is essential for most daily fluctuations in cellular and organismal functions, with the PERIOD2 protein directly interacting with mTORC1. When mTOR is temporarily inhibited, functional rhythms in cells and most daily variations in liver physiology of mice are abolished. However, it's important to note that mTOR activity is not necessary for clock protein or locomotor rhythms, suggesting that the mTOR pathway operates independently from the central circadian timekeeping mechanism. In the forebrain, mTOR activity is crucial for most detectable daily variations in protein abundance and phosphorylation. Interestingly, despite disrupting the daily architecture of the sleep/wake cycle in mice and zebrafish with mTOR blockade, a significant increase in wakefulness was observed. The findings indicate that while mTOR is a major clock output pathway in mammals, its role is not universal across all daily physiological rhythms. Moreover, the circadian mechanisms in plants (Arabidopsis) and fungi (Neurospora) appear to be more sensitive to mTOR inhibition than the core clock mechanisms, suggesting an evolutionary conservation of the mTOR pathway as a circadian effector. The study concludes that most but not all daily physiological rhythms in mammalian cells and tissues depend on rhythmic regulation by the mTOR pathway.",
  "summary": "Circadian rhythms in transcription are facilitated by well-defined genetic circuits, but how molecular clocks drive daily rhythms in mammalian physiology is poorly understood. The mechanistic target-of-rapamycin (mTOR) complex integrates daily systemic and circadian intracellular timing cues for input into the cellular timekeeping machinery. Here we demonstrate that mTOR is a major clock output…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}