2kji

Publication Abstract from PubMed

Caenorhabditis elegans contains a family of putative insulin-like genes proposed to regulate dauer arrest and senescence. These sequences often lack characteristic sequence features of human insulin essential for its folding, structure, and function. Here, we describe the structure and receptor-binding properties of INS-6, a single-chain polypeptide expressed in specific neurons. Despite multiple nonconservative changes in sequence, INS-6 recapitulates an insulin-like fold. Although lacking classical receptor-binding determinants, INS-6 binds to and activates the human insulin receptor. Its activity is greater than that of an analogous single-chain human insulin analog.

A divergent INS protein in Caenorhabditis elegans structurally resembles human insulin and activates the human insulin receptor.,Hua QX, Nakagawa SH, Wilken J, Ramos RR, Jia W, Bass J, Weiss MA Genes Dev. 2003 Apr 1;17(7):826-31. doi: 10.1101/gad.1058003. Epub 2003 Mar 21. PMID:12654724^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.