Well Met: RIPK1 senses S-adenosyl methionine to ensure cell survival

Receptor interacting kinase-1 (RIPK1) plays central roles in multiple cell death and signal transduction pathways.A recent paper describes a role for RIPK1 in sensing sadenosyl methionine levels, a metabolic product of the amino acid methionine, required for protein and nucleic acid methylation.Methylation of RIPK1 restricts its activity, and when levels of methionine are low, the absence of this methylation promotes RIPK1-dependent apoptosis in vitro and in vivo.