Michalis Agathocleous, Nicola K. Love, Owen Randlett, Julia J. Harris, Jinyue Liu, Andrew J. Murray and William A. Harris have published a very interesting story on proliferating cells of the Xenopus laevis retina that documents aerobic glycolysis rather than oxidative phosphorylation. Historically, this shift in metabolism was termed the Warburg effect where it was originally described in tumorigenesis. Could it be that this shift in metabolism is more widely used than previously anticipated? Certainly in the proliferating developing Xenopus laevis retina, it appears so, even in the presence of oxygen. The only other instance of aerobic glycolosis I am aware of is in T-cells, but that too is associated with oncogenicity.
This really opens up possibilities for metabolic control of a variety of processes in not only development, but also pathology with respect to alternative methods for defining metabolic states and deriving energy.