Abstract
New molecules discovered during the past ten years have created a rational framework to understand signalling transduction by a broad range of growth factors and cytokines, including insulin. Insulin action is initiated through the insulin receptor, a transmembrane glycoprotein with intrinsic protein tyrosine kinase activity. The tyrosine kinase mediates the insulin response through tyrosine phosphorylation of various cellular substrates, in particular the IRS-proteins. During insulin-stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation, the IRS-proteins mediate a broad biological response by binding and activating various enzymes or adapter molecules. Although we are far from a complete understanding of the insulin signalling system and its failure, enough pieces of the puzzle are falling into place that mechanism-based solutions to insulin resistance encountered with type II diabetes may soon be attainable.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hunter T: Oncoprotein networks. Cell 88: 333–346, 1997
Pawson T: Protein modules and signalling networks. Nature 373: 573–580, 1995
Sun XJ, Rothenberg PL, Kahn CR, Backer JM, Araki E, Wilden PA, Cahill DA, Goldstein BJ, White MF: The structure of the insulin receptor substrate IRS-1 defines a unique signal transduction protein. Nature 352: 73–77, 1991
Sun XJ, Wang LM, Zhang Y, Yenush L, Myers MG Jr, Glasheen EM, Lane WS, Pierce JH, White MF: Role of IRS-2 in insulin and cytokine signalling. Nature 377: 173–177, 1995
Holgado-Madruga M, Emlet DR, Moscatello DK, Godwin AK, Wong AJ: A Grb2-associated docking protein in EGF-and insulin-receptor signalling. Nature 379: 560–563, 1996
Yamanashi Y, Baltimore D: Identification of the Abl-and rasGAP-associated 62 kDa protein as a docking protein, Dok. Cell: 205–211, 1997
Heller-Harrison RA, Morin M, Guilhenne A, Czech MP: Insulin-mediated targeting of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase to GLUT4-containing vesicles. J Biol Chem: 10200–10204, 1996
Hotamisligil GS, Spiegelman BM: Tumor necrosis factor alpha: A key component of the obesity-diabetes link. Diabetes: 1271–1278, 1994
Hotamisligil GS, Peraldi P, Budvari A, Ellis RW, White MF, Spiegelman BM: IRS-1 mediated inhibition of insulin receptor tyrosine kinase activity in TNF-α-and obesity-induced insulin resistance. Science 271: 665–668, 1996
White MF, Maron R, Kahn CR: Insulin rapidly stimulates tyrosine phosphorylation of a Mr 185,000 protein in intact cells. Nature 318: 183–186, 1985
Araki E, Haag BL III, Kahn CR: Cloning of the mouse insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) gene and complete sequence of mouse IRS-1. Biochim Biophys Acta 1221: 353–356, 1994
Sun XJ, Pons S, Wang LM, Zhang Y, Yenush L, Burks D, Myers MG Jr, Glasheen E, Copeland NG, Jenkins NA, Pierce JH, White MF: The IRS-2 gene on murine chromosome 8 encodes a unique signalling adapter for insulin and cytokine action. Mol Endocrinol 11: 251–262, 1997
Bruning JC, Winnay J, Cheatham B, Kahn CR: Differential signalling by IRS-1 and IRS-2 in IRS-1 deficient cells. Mol Cell Biol: 1997 (in press)
Raabe T, Riesgo-Escovar J, Liu X, Bausenwein BS, Deak P, Maroy P, Hafen E: DOS, a novel pleckstrin homology domain-containing protein required for signal transduction between sevenless and ras l in Drosophila. Cell 85: 911–920, 1996
Carpino N, Wisniewski D, Strife A, Marshak D, Kobayashi R, Stillman B, Clarkson B: p62dok: A constitutively tyrosine-phosphorylated, GAP-associated protein in chronic myelogenous leukemia progenitor cells. Cell 88: 197–204, 1997
Eck MJ, Dhe-Paganon S, Trub T, Nolte RT, Shoelson SE: Structure of the IRS-1 PTB domain bound to the juxtamembrane region of the insulin receptor. Cell 85: 695–705, 1996
Lavan BE, Lane WS, Lienhard GE: The 60 kDa phosphotyrosine protein in insulin-treated adipocytes is a new member of the insulin receptor substrate family. J Biol Chem 272: 11439–11443, 1997
Smith-Hall J, Pons S, Patti ME, Burks DJ, Yenush L, Sun XJ, Kahn CR, White MF: The 60 kDa insulin receptor substrate functions like an IRS-protein (pp60IRS3) in adipocytes. Biochemistry: 1997, (in press)
Kelly KL, Ruderman NB: Insulin-stimulated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. J Biol Chem 268: 4391–4398, 1993
Wang LM, Keegan AD, Li W, Lienhard GE, Pacini S, Gutkind JS, Myers MG Jr, Sun XJ, White MF, Aaronson SA, Paul WE, Pierce JH: Common elements in interleukin 4 and insulin signalling pathways in factor dependent hematopoietic cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 90: 4032–4036, 1993
Sawka-Verhelle D, Tartare-Deckert S, White MF, Van Obberghen E: IRS-2 binds to the insulin receptor through its PTB domain and through a newly identified domain comprising amino acids 591–786. J Biol Chem 271: 5980–5983, 1996
He W, Craparo A, Zhu Y, O'Neill TJ, Wang LM, Pierce JH, Gustafson TA: Interaction of insulin receptor substrate-2 (IRS-2) with the insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 receptors. J Biol Chem 271: 11641–11645, 1996
Myers MG Jr, Wang LM, Sun XJ, Zhang Y, Yenush L, Schlessinger J, Pierce JH, White MF: The role of IRS-I/GRB2 complexes in insulin signalling. Mol Cell Biol 14: 3577–3587, 1994
Skolnik EY, Batzer AG, Li N, Lee CH, Lowenstein EJ, Mohammadi M, Margolis B, Schlessinger J: The function of GRB2 in linking the insulin receptor to ras signalling pathways. Science 260: 1953–1955, 1993
Sun XJ, Pons S, Asano T, Myers MG Jr, Glasheen EM, White MF: The fyn tyrosine kinase binds IRS-1 and forms a distinct signalling complex during insulin stimulation. J Biol Chem 271: 10583–10587, 1996
Kuhne MR, Pawson T, Lienhard GE, Feng GS: The insulin receptor substrate 1 associates with the SH2-containing phosphotyrosine phosphatase Syp. J Biol Chem 268: 11479–11481, 1993
Beitner-Johnson D, Blakesley VA, Shen-Orr Z, Jimenez M, Stannard B, Wang LM, Pierce JH, LeRoith D: The proto-oncogene product c-Crk associates with insulin receptor substrate-1 and 4PS. J Biol Chem 271: 9287–9290, 1996
Lee CH, Li W, Nishimura R, Zhou M, Batzer AG, Myers MG Jr, White MF, Schlessinger J, Skolnik EY: Nck associates with the SH2 domain docking proteins IRS-1 in insulin stimulated cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 90: 11713–11717, 1993
Vuori K, Ruoslahti E: Association of insulin receptor substrate-1 with integrins. Science 266: 1576–1578, 1994
Fei ZL, D'Ambrosio C, Li S, Surmacz E, Baserga R: Association of insulin receptor substrate 1 with simian virus 40 large T antigen. Mol Cell Biol 15: 4232–4239, 1995
Craparo A, Freund R, Gustafson TA: 14–3-3 epsilon interacts with the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor and insulin receptor substrate I in phosphotyrosine-independent a manner. J Biol Chem 272: 11663–11670, 1997
Valius M, Kazlauskas A: Phospholipase C-gamma 1 and phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase are the downstream mediators of the PDGF receptor's mitogenic signal. Cell 73: 321–334, 1993
Yao R, Cooper GM: Requirement for phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase in the prevention of apoptosis by nerve growth factor. Science 267: 2003–2006, 1995
Kimura K, Hattori S, Kabuyama Y, Shizawa Y, Takayanagi J, Nakamura S, Toki S, Matsuda Y, Onodera K, Fukui Y: Neurite outgrowth of PC12 cells is suppressed by wortmannin, a specific inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. J Biol Chem 269: 18961–18967, 1994
Kundra V, Escobedo JA, Kazlauskas A, Kim HK, Rhee SG, Williams LT, Zetter BR: Regulation of chemotaxis by the platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta. Nature 367: 474–476, 1994
Okada T, Sakuma L, Fukui Y, Hazeki O, Ui M: Blockage of chemotactic peptide-induced stimulation of neutrophils by wortmannin as a selective inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. J Biochem 269: 3563–3567, 1994
Wennstrom S, Hawkins P, Cooke F, Hara K, Yonezawa K, Kasuga M, Jackson T, Claessonwelsh L, Stephens L: Activation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase is rectivation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase is required for PDGF-stimulated membrane ruffling. Curr Biol 4: 385–393, 1994
Okada T, Kawano Y, Sakakibara T, Hazeki O, Ui M: Essential role of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase in insulin-induced glucose transport and antilipolysis in rat adipocytes. J Biochem 269: 3568–3573, 1994
Dudek H, Datta SR, Franke TF, Bimbaum MJ, Yao R, Cooper GM, Segal RA, Kaplan DR, Greenberg ME: Regulation of neuronal survival by the serine-threonine protein kinase Akt. Science 275: 661–665, 1997
Dhand R, Hara K, Hiles I, Bax B, Gout 1, Panayotou G, Fry MJ, Yonezawa K, Kasuga M, Waterfield MD: PI 3-kinase: Structural and functional analysis of intersubunit interactions. EMBO J 13: 511–521
Pons S, Asano T, Glasheen EM, Miralpeix M, Zhang Y, Fisher TL, Myers MG Jr, Sun XJ, White MF: The structure and function of p55PIK reveals a new regulatory subunit for the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase. Mol Cell Biol 15: 4453–4465, 1995
Antonetti DA, Algenstaedt P, Kahn CR: Insulin receptor substrate 1 binds two novel splice variants of the regulatory subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase in muscle and brain. Mol Cell Biol 16: 2195–2203, 1996
Inukai K, Anai M, van Breda E, Hosaka T, Katagiri H, Funaki M, Fukushima Y, Ogihara T, Yazaki Y, Kikuchi M, Oka Y, Asano T: A novel 55 kDa regulatory subunit for phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase structurally similar to p55PIK is generated by alternative splicing of the p85αgene. J Biol Chem 271: 5317–5320, 1996
Fruman DA, Cantley LC, Carpenter CL: Structural organization and alternative splicing of the murine phosphoinositide 3-kinase p85αgene. Genomics 37: 113–121, 1996
Backer JM, Schroeder GG, Kahn CR, Myers MG Jr, Wilden PA, Cahill DA, White MF: Insulin stimulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity maps to insulin receptor regions required for endogenous substrate phosphorylation. J Biol Chem 267: 1367–1374, 1992
Rordorf-Nikolic T, Van Horn DJ, Chen D, White MF, Backer JM: Regulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase by tyrosyl phosphoproteins. Full activation requires occupancy of both SH2 domains in the 85 kDa regulatory subunit. J Biol Chem 270: 3662–3666, 1995
Myers MG Jr, Zhang Y, Aldaz GAI, Grammer TC, Glasheen EM, Yenush L, Wang LM, Sun XJ, Blenis J, Pierce JH, White MF: YMXM motifs and signalling by an insulin receptor substrate 1 molecule without tyrosine phosphorylation sites. Mol Cell Biol 16: 4147–4155, 1996
Franke TF, Yang S, Chan TO, Datta K, Kazlauskas A, Morrison DK, Kaplan DR, Tsichlis PN: The protein kinase encoded by the Akt proto-oncogene is a target of the PDGF-activated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. Cell 81: 727–736, 1995
Diaz-Meco MT, Lozano J, Municio MM, Berra E, Frutos S, Sanz L, Moscat J: Evidence for the in vitro and in vivo interaction of Ras with protein kinase C zeta. J Biol Chem 269: 31706–31710, 1994
Alessi DR, Andjelkovic M, Caudwell B, Cron P, Morrice N, Cohen P, Hemmings BA: Mechanism of activation of protein kinase B by insulin and IGF-1. EMBO J 15: 6541–6551, 1996
Cross DAE, Alessi DR, Cohen P, Andjelkovich M, Hemmings BA: Inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase-3 by insulin mediated protein kinase B. Nature 378: 785–787, 1996
Bandyopadhyay G, Standaert ML, Zhao LM, Yu B, Avignon A, Galloway L, Kamam P, Moscat J, Farese RV: Activation of protein kinase C (α, β, and zeta) by insulin in 3T3/L I cells. J Biol Chem 272: 2551–2558, 1997
Hemmings BA: Akt signalling Linked membrane events to life and death decisions. Science 275: 628–630, 1997
Freeman RM, Jr., Plutzky J, Neel BG: Identification of a human src homology 2-containing protein-tyrosine-phosphatase: A putative homolog of Drosphila corkscrew. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 89: 11239–11243, 1992
Feng GS, Hui C-C, Pawson T. SH-2 containing phosphotyrosine phosphatase as a target of protein-tyrosine kinase. Science 259: 1607–1614, 1993
Lechleider RJ, Freeman RM Jr, Neel BG: Tyrosyl phosphorylation and growth factor receptor association of the human corkscrew homologue, SHPTP2. J Biol Chem 268: 13434–13438, 1993
Lechleider RJ, Sugimoto S, Bennett AM, Kashishian AS, Cooper JA, Shoelson SE, Walsh CT, Neel BG: Activation of the SH2-containing phosphotyrosine phosphatase SH-PTP2 by its binding site, phosphotyrosine 1009, on the human platelet-derived growth factor receptor B. J Biol Chem 268: 21478–21481, 1993
Tauchi T, Feng GS, Marshall MS, Shen R, Mantel C, Pawson T, Broxmeyer HE: The ubiquitously expressed Syp phosphatase interacts with c-kit and Grb2 in hematopoietic cells. J Biol Chem 269: 25206–25211, 1994
Perkins LA, Larsen I, Perrimon N: corkscrew encodes a putative protein tyrosine phosphatase that functions to transduce the terminal signal from the receptor tyrosine kinase torso. Cell 12: 225–236, 1992
Eck MJ, Pluskey S, Trub T, Harrison SC, Shoelson SE: Spatial constraints on the recognition of phosphoproteins by the tandem SH2 domains of the phosphatase SH-PTP2. Nature 379: 277–280, 1996
Kharitonenkov A, Schnekenburger J, Chen Z, Knyazev P, Ali S, Zwick E, White MF, Ullrich A: Adapter function of PTP1D in insulin receptor/IRS-1 interaction. J Biol Chem 270: 29189–29193, 1995
Yamao T, Matozaki T, Amano K, Matsuda Y, Takahashi N, Ochi F, Fujioka Y, Kasuga M: Mouse and human SHPS-I: Molecular cloning of cDNAs and chromosomal localization of genes. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 231: 61–67, 1997
Yamauchi K, Milarski KL, Saltiel AR, Pessin JE: Protein-tyrosine—phosphatase SBPTP2 is a required positive effector for insulin downstream signalling. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 92: 664–668, 1995
Noguchi T, Matozaki T, Horita K, Fujioka Y, Kasuga M: Role of SH-PTP2, a protein-tyrosine phosphatase with Src homology 2 domains, in insulin-stimulated ras activation. Mol Cell Biol 14: 6674–6682, 1994
Sasaoka T, Rose DW, Jhun BH, Saltiel AR, Draznin B, Olefsky JM: Evidence for a functional role of Shc proteins in mitogenic signalling induced by insulin, insulin-like growth factor-1, and epidermal growth factor. J Biol Chem 269: 13689–13694, 1994
Arrandale JM, Gore-Willse A, Rocks S, Ren JM, Zhu J, Davis A, Livingston JN, Rabin DU: Insulin signalling in mice expressing reduced levels of Syp. J Biol Chem 271: 21353–21358, 1996
Mendez R, Myers MG Jr, White MF, Rhoads RE: Stimulation of protein synthesis, eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E phosphorylation, and PHAS-1 phosphorylation by insulin requires insulin receptor substrate-1 and phosphotidylinositol-3-kinase. Mol Cell Biol 16: 2857–2864, 1996
Schlessinger J: How receptor tyrosine kinases activate Ras. Trends Biochem Sci 18: 273–275, 1993
Skolnik EY, Lee CH, Batzer AG, Vicentini LM, Zhou M, Daly RJ, Myers MG Jr, Backer JM, Ullrich A, White MF, Schlessinger J: The SH2/SH3 domain-containing protein GRB2 interacts with tyrosine-phosphorylated IRS-1 and Shc: Implications for insulin control of ras signalling. EMBO J 12: 1929–1236, 1993
Gale NW, Kaplan S, Lowenstein EJ, Schlessinger J, Bar-Sagi D: Grb2 mediates the EGF-dependent activation of guanine nucleotide exchange on Ras. Nature 363: 88–92, 1993
Yamauchi T, Tobe K, Tamemoto H, Ueki K, Kaburagi Y, Yamamoto-Handa R, Takahadhi Y, Yoshizawa F, Aizawa S, Akanuma Y, Sonenberg N, Yazaki Y, Kadowaki T: Insulin signalling and insulin actions in the muscles and livers of insulin-resistant, insulin receptor substrate 1-deficient mice. Mol Cell Biol 16: 3074–3084, 1996
Araki E, Lipes MA, Patti ME, Bruning JC, Haag BL, Ill, Johnson RS, Kahn CR: Alternative pathway of insulin signalling in mice with targeted disruption of the IRS-1 gene. Nature 372: 186–190, 1994
Tamemoto H, Kadowaki T, Tobe K, Yagi T, Sakura H, Hayakawa T, Terauchi Y, Ueki K, Kaburagi Y, Satoh S, Sekihara H, Yoshioka S, Horikoshi H, Furuta Y, Ikawa Y, Kasuga M, Yazaki Y, Aizawa S: Insulin resistance and growth retardation in mice lacking insulin receptor substrate-1. Nature 372: 182–186, 1994
Bruning JC, Winnay J, Bonner-Weir S, Taylor SI, Accili D, Kahn CR: Development of a novel polygenic model of NIDDM in mice heterozygous for IR and IRS-1 null alleles. Cell 88: 561–572, 1997
Patti ME, Sun XJ, Bruning JC, Araki E, Lipes MA, White MF, Kahn CR: IRS-2/4PS is an alternative substrate of the insulin receptor in IRS-1 deficient transgenic mice. Diabetes 44:(abstr) 31A, 1995
Almind K, Inoue G, Pedersen O, Kahn CR: A common amino acid polymorphism in insulin receptor substrate-1 causes impaired insulin signalling. Evidence from transfection studies. J Clin Invest 97: 2569–2575, 1996
Clausen JO, Hansen T, Bjorbaek C, Echwald SM, Urhammer SA, Rasmussen S, Andersen CB, Hansen L, Almind K, Winther K, Haraldsdottir J, Borch-Johnsen K, Pedersen O: Insulin resistance: Interactions between obesity and a common variant of insulin receptor substrate-1. Lancet 346: 397–402, 1995
Verheij M, Bose R, Lin XH, Yao B, Jarvis WD, Grant S, Birrer MJ, Szabo E, Son LI, Kyriakis JM, Haimovitz-Friedman A, Fuks Z, Kolesnick RN: Requirement for ceramide-initiated SAPK/JNK signalling in stress-induced apoptosis. Nature 380: 75–79, 1996
Saklatvala J, Davis W, Guesdon F. Interleukin 1 (IL1) and tumour necrosis factor (TNF) signal transduction. Phil Trans R Soc Lond Biol Sci 351: 151–157, 1996
Hirai S, Izawa M, Osada S, Spyrou G, Ohno S: Activation of the JNK pathway by distantly related protein kinases, MEKK and MUK. Oncogene 12: 641–650, 1996
Hotamisligil GS, Amer P, Caro JF, Atkinson RL, Spiegelman BM: Increased adipose tissue expression of tumor necrosis factor-αin human obesity and insulin resistance. J Clin Invest 95: 2409–2415, 1995
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
White, M.F. The IRS-signalling system: A network of docking proteins that mediate insulin action. Mol Cell Biochem 182, 3–11 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006806722619
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006806722619