The sensitivity of leukemic cells toward amino acid starvation correlates with sugar transport. (A) Spontaneous emergence of a Ser/Gly starvation-resistant population. Proliferation rates of the parental and resistant (res. clone) cells under cultivation conditions as indicated. (B) Heat map depicting the top 20 genes selected according to upregulation under starvation conditions and in starvation-resistant cells. The glucose transporter Slc2a3 (also known as Glut3) is highlighted. (C) Ser/Gly starvation resistance correlated with glucose transport capacity. Glucose uptake was measured by incubation with 2NBDG, a fluorescent glucose analogue, and measured by FACS. (D) Relative expression of Slc2a3 determined by qPCR in leukemic, resistant, and normal cells in complete (blue bars) or Ser/Gly-deficient (red bars) medium. (E) AMPK was not activated by Ser/Gly starvation. MLL-ENL transformed cells were incubated for 48 hours under the indicated conditions, and cellular extracts were analyzed for the presence of total and active/phosphorylated AMPK by western blot.