Biological Significance
Tyrosine kinase receptors, including the insulin receptor, mediate their activity by causing the addition of a phosphate group to particular tyrosines on certain proteins within a cell. The "substrate" proteins that are phosphorylated by the Insulin Receptor include a protein called "IRS-1" for "insulin receptor substrate 1". IRS-1 binding and phosphorylation eventually leads to an increase in the high affinity glucose transporter (Glut4) molecules on the outer membrane of insulin-responsive tissues, including muscle cells and adipose tissue, and therefore to an increase in the uptake of glucose from blood into these tissues. In other words, the glucose transporter Glut4 is transported from cellular vesicles to the cell surface, where it then can mediate the transport of glucose into the cell.
Read more about this topic: Insulin Receptor
Famous quotes containing the words biological and/or significance:
“I am fifty-two years of age. I am a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a few people might be constrained to say that I was reasonably responsible. In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute—a white skin.”
—Desmond Tutu (b. 1931)
“I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which it is.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)