Disentangling the nonmetabolic roles of metabolites: lactate as a case study

Many metabolites possess covalent and noncovalent signaling functions. However, ongoing research considers them mostly as ligands, neglecting their potential involvement in post-translational modifications. In this forum article, we discuss the dual signaling functions of metabolites, using lactate as a case study, and advocate for the use of multiple complementary techniques to disentangle their functions.