Insulin receptor (INSR)

Receptor tyrosine kinase which mediates the pleiotropic action of insulin. Binding of insulin leads to phosphorylation of several intracellular substrates, including, insulin receptor substrates (IRS1, 2, 3, 4), SHC, GAB1, CBL and other signaling intermediates.

Each of these phosphorylated proteins serve as docking proteins for other signaling proteins that contain Src- homology-2 domains (SH2 domain) that specifically recognize different phosphotyrosine residues, including the p85 regulatory subunit of PI3K and SHP2. Phosphorylation of IRSs proteins lead to the regeneration of two primary signaling pathways: the PI3K-AKT/PKB pathway, which is responsible for most of the metabolic actions of insulin, and the Ras-MAPK pathway, which regulates expression of some genes and cooperates with the PI3K pathway to control cell growth and differentiation.