A potent toxin present in the venom of a fish-hunting cone snail is a minimized insulin (Con-Ins G1) lacking key residues involved in the receptor binding of most insulins. New data show that Con-Ins G1 nevertheless binds potently to the human insulin receptor, owing to a rearrangement that compensates for the lack of a critical binding residue.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Marina Corral Spence/Nature Publishing Group
References
De Meyts, P. BioEssays 26, 1351–1362 (2004).
Safavi-Hemami, H. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 112, 1743–1748 (2015).
Olivera, B.M. Mol. Biol. Cell 8, 2101–2109 (1997).
Pullen, R.A. et al. Nature 259, 369–373 (1976).
De Meyts, P., Van Obberghen, E. & Roth, J. Nature 273, 504–509 (1978).
Slobin, L.I. & Carpenter, F.H. Biochemistry 2, 16–22 (1963).
Carpenter, F.H. & Baum, W.E. J. Biol. Chem. 237, 409–412 (1962).
Bao, S.J., Xie, D.L., Zhang, J.P., Chang, W.R. & Liang, D.C. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 2975–2980 (1997).
Menting, J.G. et al. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. (2016).
McKern, N.M. et al. Nature 443, 218–221 (2006).
Lou, M. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 12429–12434 (2006).
Smith, B.J. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 6771–6776 (2010).
Menting, J.G. et al. Nature 493, 241–245 (2013).
Menting, J.G. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 111, E3395–E3404 (2014).
Croll, T.I. et al. Structure 24, 469–476 (2016).
Lawrence, C.F. et al. J. Biol. Chem. 291, 15473–15481 (2016).
De Meyts, P. BioEssays 37, 389–397 (2015).
Kiselyov, V.V., Versteyhe, S., Gauguin, L. & De Meyts, P. Mol. Syst. Biol. 5, 243 (2009).
Brange, J. et al. Nature 333, 679–682 (1988).
Ribel, U., Hougaard, P., Drejer, K. & Sørensen, A.R. Diabetes 39, 1033–1039 (1990).
Sajid, W. et al. J. Biol. Chem. 286, 661–673 (2011).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
P.D.M. is an external consultant for Novo Nordisk A/S, Måløv, Denmark.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
De Meyts, P. Structural basis for the poisonous activity of a predator's venom insulin. Nat Struct Mol Biol 23, 872–874 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.3304
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.3304
