mTOR integrates nutrient availability and growth factors to regulate cellular processes like protein synthesis, lipid production, and growth, or conservation and recycling during scarcity.

“in a nutshell mtor is the master integrator of external availability of nutrients and growth factors and then is the master regulator of the outputs of that integration deciding whether cells are going to make proteins make lipids make nucleic acids grow or are we going to circle the wagons conserve resources recycle and wait during times of little for hopefully future times of plenty”