Skip to main content
Log in

Insulin and its receptor: a grand challenge in structural biology

  • Commentary
  • Published:
Biophysical Reviews Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abel JJ (1926) Crystalline insulin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 12:132–136

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Adams MJ, Blundell TL, Dodson EJ, Dodson GG, Vijayan M, Baker EN, Harding MM, Hodgkin DC, Rimmer B, Sheat S (1969) Structure of rhombohedral 2 zinc insulin crystals. Nature 224:491–495

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Banting FG, Best CH, Collip JB, Campbell WR, Fletcher AA, MacLeod JJR, Noble EC (1922) The effect produced on diabetes by extracts of pancreas. T Assoc Am Physician 37:337–347

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowfoot D (1935) X-ray single crystal photographs of insulin. Nature 135:591–592

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • De Meyts P (1994) The structural basis of insulin and insulin-like growth factor-I receptor binding and negative co-operativity, and its relevance to mitogenic versus metabolic signalling. Diabetologia 37(Suppl. 2):S135–S148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Meyts P, Roth J, Neville DM Jr, Gavin JR 3rd, Lesniak MA (1973) Insulin interactions with its receptors: experimental evidence for negative cooperativity. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 55:154–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ebina Y, Ellis L, Jarnagin K, Edery M, Graf L, Clauser E, Ou JH, Masiarz F, Kan YW, Goldfine ID, Roth RA, Rutter WJ (1985) The human insulin receptor cDNA: the structural basis for hormone-activated transmembrane signalling. Cell 40:747–758

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lou M, Garrett TP, McKern NM, Hoyne PA, Epa VC, Bentley JD, Lovrecz GO, Cosgrove LJ, Frenkel MJ, Ward CW (2006) The first three domains of the insulin receptor differ structurally from the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor in the regions governing ligand specificity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103:12429–12434

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McCoy AJ, Grosse-Kunstleve RW, Adams PD, Winn MD, Storoni LC, Read RJ (2007) Phaser crystallographic software. J Appl Crystallogr 40:658–674

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McKern NM, Lawrence MC, Streltsov VA, Lou MZ, Adams TE, Lovrecz GO, Elleman TC, Richards KM, Bentley JD, Pilling PA, Hoyne PA, Cartledge KA, Pham TM, Lewis JL, Sankovich SE, Stoichevska V, Da Silva E, Robinson CP, Frenkel MJ, Sparrow LG, Fernley RT, Epa VC, Ward CW (2006) Structure of the insulin receptor ectodomain reveals a folded-over conformation. Nature 443:218–221

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Menting JG, Whittaker J, Margetts MB, Whittaker LJ, Kong GKW, Smith BJ, Watson CJ, Žáková L, Kletvíková E, Jiráček J, Chan SJ, Steiner DF, Dodson GG, Brzozowski AM, Weiss MA, Ward CW, Lawrence MC (2013) How insulin engages its primary binding site on the insulin receptor. Nature 493:241–245

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Perutz M (1956) Isomorphous replacement and phase determination in non-centrosymmetric space groups. Acta Crystallogr 9:867–873

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sanger F, Thompson EO (1953a) The amino-acid sequence in the glycyl chain of insulin. I. The identification of lower peptides from partial hydrolysates. Biochem J 53:353–366

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sanger F, Thompson EO (1953b) The amino-acid sequence in the glycyl chain of insulin. II. The investigation of peptides from enzymic hydrolysates. Biochem J 53:366–374

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sanger F, Tuppy H (1951a) The amino-acid sequence in the phenylalanyl chain of insulin. I. The identification of lower peptides from partial hydrolysates. Biochem J 49:463–481

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sanger F, Tuppy H (1951b) The amino-acid sequence in the phenylalanyl chain of insulin. 2. The investigation of peptides from enzymic hydrolysates. Biochem J 49:481–490

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Scapin G, Dandey VP, Zhang Z, Prosise W, Hruza A, Kelly T, Mayhood T, Strickland C, Potter CS, Carragher B (2018) Structure of the insulin receptor–insulin complex by single-particle cryo-EM analysis. Nature 556:122–125

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ullrich A, Bell JR, Chen EY, Herrera R, Petruzzelli LM, Dull TJ, Gray A, Coussens L, Liao YC, Tsubokawa M, Mason A, Seeburg PH, Grunfeld C, Rosen OM, Ramachandran J (1985) Human insulin receptor and its relationship to the tyrosine kinase family of oncogenes. Nature 313:756–761

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weis F, Menting JG, Margetts MB, Chan SJ, Xu Y, Tennagels N, Wohlfart P, Langer T, Müller CW, Dreyer MK, Lawrence MC (2018) The signalling conformation of the insulin receptor ectodomain. Nat Commun 9:4420

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael C Lawrence.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Michael C Lawrence declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by the author.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This article is part of a Special Issue on “Biophysics & Structural Biology at Synchrotrons” edited by Trevor Sewell.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lawrence, M.C. Insulin and its receptor: a grand challenge in structural biology. Biophys Rev 11, 543–545 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-019-00559-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-019-00559-6

Navigation