Succinate Dehydrogenase loss causes cascading metabolic effects that impair pyrimidine biosynthesis

Decreased availability of the amino acid aspartate can constrain cell function in diverse biological contexts, but the temporal interplay between aspartate, downstream metabolic changes, and functional effects remains poorly understood. Using an aspartate biosensor and live-cell imaging, we examine the interaction between aspartate abundance and cell proliferation in several models of aspartate limitation. While aspartate deficiencies intuitively interface with proliferation in some contexts, aspartate limitation from succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) inhibition causes strikingly nonintuitive dynamics resulting from an outsized impairment of pyrimidine synthesis. Mechanistically, we find that SDH loss impairs pyrimidine biosynthesis by decreasing aspartate and accumulating succinate, which competitively inhibits mammalian aspartate transcarbamylase (ATCase). This metabolic interaction persists in multiple models of SDH deficiency, causing pyrimidine insufficiency, replication stress, and sensitivity to ATR kinase inhibition. These findings define a novel role for succinate in modulating cellular nucleotide homeostasis, suggest a potential therapeutic vulnerability of SDH-deficient tumors, and demonstrate how cascading metabolic interactions can unfold to impact cell function.