title: The insulin signalling system and the IRS proteins.
abstract: During the past few years, the insulin signalling system has emerged as a flexible network of interacting proteins. By utilizing the insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-proteins (IRS-1 and IRS-2), the insulin signal can be amplified or attenuated independently of insulin binding and tyrosine kinase activity, providing an extensible mechanism for signal transmission in multiple cellular backgrounds. By employing IRS-proteins to engage various signalling proteins, the insulin receptor avoids the stoichiometric constraints encountered by receptors which directly recruit SH2-proteins to their autophosphorylation sites. Finally, the shared use of IRS-proteins by multiple receptors is likely to reveal important connections between insulin and other hormones and cytokines which were previously unrecognized, or observed but unexplained.
authors.affiliation: Research Division, Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D055504:Insulin Receptor Substrate Proteins; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011972:Receptor, Insulin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: C526292:IRS1 protein, human; C526297:IRS2 protein, human; D007328:Insulin; D055504:Insulin Receptor Substrate Proteins; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D011972:Receptor, Insulin