Patent Application: US-95629092-A

Abstract:
a receptor for an insulin - like polypeptide is purified from yeast membranes . this &# 34 ; insulin receptor - like protein &# 34 ; has a structure analogous to that of the mammalian insulin receptor . the insulin receptor - like protein of saccharomyces cerevisiae is a heterotetrameric glycoprotein . the protein has two polypeptide types , a first polypeptide which binds insulin and has an apparent molecular weight of 135 , 000 to 145 , 000 daltons and a second polypeptide which has an apparent molecular weight of 90 , 000 to 95 , 000 daltons and is phosphorylated on tyrosine in response to binding of insulin by said first polypeptide . the first and second polypeptides are joined by disulfide linkage . the protein requires a divalent metal ion for tyrosine autophosphorylation in response to binding of insulin . the yeast insulin receptor - like protein binds human insulin with a dissociation constant of k d = 8 × 10 - 10 m and binds human insulin - like growth factor 1 with a k d = 4 × 10 - 10 m .

Description:
the preferred embodiments of the invention are described by means of the following examples . these examples are intended to be illustrative , rather than limiting in scope . it is to be understood that subfragments or variants of the insulin - like protein receptor protein disclosed in the present application wherein the original amino acid sequence is modified or changed by insertion , addition , substitution , inversion or deletion of one or more amino acids are within the scope of the present invention , so far as they retain the essential ligand - binding specificity and biochemical activities described herein . abbreviations used throughout this application are : irp , insulin receptor - like protein ; hepes , 4 -( 2 - hydroxyethyl )- 1 - piperazineethanesulfonic acid ; peg , polyethylene glycol ; igf - i , insulin - like growth factor i ; igf - ii , insulin - like growth factor ii ; egf , epidermal growth factor , tgf - α , transforming growth factor ( alpha ); α - mf , alpha - mating factor ; sds , sodium dodecyl sulfate ; pic , protease inhibitors cocktail ; pmsf , phenylmethylsufonyl fluoride ; tpck , n - tosyl - l - phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone ; egta , ethylene glycol - bis -( β - aminoethyl ether ) n , n , n &# 39 ;, n &# 39 ;- tetraacetic acid ; p - apmsf , 4 - amidinophenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride ; dtt , dithiothreitol ; β - me , 2 - mercaptoethanol ; hrp , horseradish peroxidase ; wga , wheat germ agglutinin ; bca , bicinchoninic acid ; tca , trichloroacetic acid ; pic , protease inhibitor cocktail ( 1x ); ynb , yeast nitrogen base medium ; ypd , yeast extract , peptone , dextrose medium ; ria , radioimmunoassay ; ecl , enhanced chemiluminescence ; dss , disuccinimidyl suberate . all chemicals were of reagent grade or higher purity . microbiological culture media were purchased from difco . cell culture grade glucose and amino acids , buffers , sucrose ( grade i ), carbonyl and peroxide - free triton x - 100 , protease inhibitors ( tpck , pmsf , benzamidine , leupeptin , bestatin , pepstatin a , soybean trypsin inhibitor , ε - amino - n - caproic acid , chymostatin , trasylol , p - apmsf ), egta , bovine gamma globulin , bovine and porcine insulin ( both approximately 24 i . u . per mg ; 0 . 5 % zinc ), porcine proinsulin , yeast α - mf , tgf - α , and insulin - agarose were obtained from sigma chemical co . igf - i , igf - ii , and egf ( all human recombinant ) were purchased from boehringer - manneheim . bacitracin was from paddock laboratories , inc . wga - agarose was obtained from sigma chemical co . or from miles yeda , ltd . fatty acid -, nuclease - and protease - free bovine serum albumin ( fraction v ; ria - grade with less than 1 unit insulin per g ) was available from calbiochem . monoiodinated porcine [ 125 i ] insulin ( receptor grade ) was obtained from new england nuclear . disuccinimidyl suberate and the bca protein determination kit were purchased 5 from pierce . electrophoresis grade sds , glycine , polyacrylamide , bis - acrylamide , nitrocellulose paper , bradford protein assay kit , silver staining kit , unstained and pre - stained high molecular weight range markers were purchased from bio - rad . coomassie brilliant blue 250 - r was from fisher . monoclonal antiphosphotyrosine antibody ( 4g10 ) was obtained from upstate biotechnology , inc . sheep anti - mouse ig - hrp secondary antibody conjugate and the ecl chemiluminescence detection system for western blotting were supplied by amersham . x - omat ar film for autoradiography was from kodak . nitrocellulose membranes for ultrafiltration ( ultrafree ; nominal exclusion 10 kda ) were purchased from millipore . glass beads ( 0 . 5 mm diameter ) were obtained from denville scientific . the haploid s . cerevisiae wild - type strain s288c ( matα suc2 mal mel gal2 cup1 ) ( atcc 26108 ), american type culture collection , rockville , md .) and cell wall defective s . cerevisiae mutant strain lb1 - 16a ( matα mnn2 suc2 mal mel gal2 cup1 ), both obtained from the yeast genetic stock center ( university of california , berkeley ), were used for binding studies and isolation of irp . stock cultures were maintained on ypd ( 1 % ( w / v ) yeast extract , 2 % ( w / v ) peptone , 2 % ( w / v ) glucose ) plates for less than one month . starter cultures were prepared by transferring cells to defined ynb medium ( 1 . 7 g / liter ), ph 5 . 4 , supplemented with 2 % ( w / v ) glucose , 5 g / liter ammonium sulfate , 10 mg / liter histidine , 20 mg / liter methionine and 20 mg / liter tryptophan and were incubated at 30 ° c . with shaking ( 250 rpm ) until cells were in exponential phase ( 3 × 10 6 cells / ml ; a 600 = 0 . 1 ) of growth . an aqueous stock solution ( 10x ) was prepared as previously reported ( 70 ) and contained 1 mg / ml bacitracin , 0 . 2 mg / ml soybean trypsin inhibitor , 0 . 1 mg / ml bestatin , 50 μg / ml pepstatin a , 50 μg / ml leupeptin , 20 μg / ml chymostatin , 20 mm benzamidine , 10 mm p - aminobenzamidine , 10 mm ε - amino - n - caproic acid , 10 mm egta , 10 mm edta , 10 mmp - apmsf ( for steps performed at ph 8 . 0 ), 5 mm tpck . 10 mm pmsf ( when ph 6 . 5 buffer is used ) was dissolved in isopropanol and added to pic , which was freshly prepared and filter - sterilized before use . when indicated , 5 mm iodoacetamide was included during bead - beating . cells were harvested coincident with glucose exhaustion of the culture medium by tangential flow filtration through a pellicon 0 . 45 μm unit . filtered medium was passed again through a 0 . 4 μm filtration unit ( nalgene ) to eliminate residual cells and debris , and loaded into 60 - ml syringes fitted with 9 kda nominal exclusion ultrafilters ( millipore ) on a compact infusion pump ( harvard apparatus , inc .) operating at room temperature . ultrafiltered medium was used immediately to wash cells for isolation of irp . equilibrium binding of 125 i - insulin and 125 i - igf - i to whole yeast cells and partially purified membranes starter cultures were inoculated into ynb medium plus 2 % ( w / v ) glucose and amino acids as described above , and grown to early or late exponential phase , or to stationary phase ( approximately 10 8 cells / ml ; a 600 = 8 - 10 ). cells were harvested by centrifugation at 1 , 000 x g for 20 min at 25 ° c . and washed in the same medium without glucose . supernatants were decanted and cell pellets resuspended in eppendorf tubes containing binding buffer ( 100 mmhepes , ph 7 . 6 , 120 mm kcl , 1 . 2 mm mgso 4 , 2 . 5 mm nacl , 10 mm glucose , 15 mm sodium acetate , 1 mm edta , 10 mg / ml ria - grade bsa ) modified from roth ( 8 ) and 0 . 1 nm ( approximately 30 , 000 cpm ) of porcine [ 125 i ] insulin in the absence or presence of 1 × 10 - 7 m porcine or bovine insulin . to maximize specific binding and displacement of the radiolabeled ligand , preliminary trials were performed with s288c yeast in the presence of various concentrations of glucose in the wash medium and binding buffer ( table 1 ). likewise , the concentration of sodium ions in the binding buffer was reduced and potassium ions were increased to be more compatible with yeast physiology . in addition , cell number was increased to 1 × 10 8 / ml and the assay was performed at 4 ° c . until equilibrium was reached at 2 h ( fig1 ). binding was terminated at various times by pelleting cells at 13 , 000 × g for 2 min at 4 ° c . and washing twice with ice - cold binding buffer . the tips of the tubes were excised and pellet associated radioactivity quantitated in a tm analytic gamma counter for 5 min . tracer degradation was examined in the absence and presence of 1 × 10 - 7 m unlabelled porcine insulin , and quantitated by precipitation of an aliquot of post - incubation supernatant with ice - cold 10 % ( w / v ) tca . corrections for nonspecific binding ( 2 - 3 % of the total ) and insulin degradation ( less than or equal to 5 % of the tracer in the assay ) were included in calculations of the number and affinity constants of insulin binding sites . cell viability ( greater than 95 %) following assay was verified by trypan blue exclusion and plating on ypd medium . yeast strain s288c was grown to early logarithmic phase in 60 liters of ynb medium supplemented with 2 % ( w / v ) glucose and amino acids at 30 ° c . for 13 hours . cells were concentrated by tangential flow filtration in a pellicon 0 . 45 μm unit ( millipore ), pelleted by low speed centrifugation ( 1500 × g ) at room temperature , and washed in ynb medium lacking glucose , amino acids and ammonium sulfate . washed cells ( 9 . 9 g wet weight ) were centrifuged at low speed and resuspended in 100 ml ice - cold 1 mm edta , ph 4 . 2 . cells were centrifuged again at 4 ° c . for 5 min and resuspended in 10 ml of 17 % ( w / v ) sucrose and 1 mmedta , ph 4 . 2 , and 20 ml of glass beads . the cell suspension was homogenized by bead - beating in an ice - jacketed apparatus ( biospec products , bartlesville , okl .) for 3 min with two - 30 sec bursts and twelve 10 sec bursts with 3 min periods of cooling between each . cell breakage was estimated at 75 % by light microscopy . the homogenate was diluted 1 : 1 with 1 mm edta and centrifuged for 10 min at 1500 × g at 4 ° c . in a sorvall ss - 34 rotor to remove unbroken cells and debris . approximately 6 ml of the supernatant was loaded onto 50 mm tris buffered ( ph 7 . 5 ) linear sucrose gradients [ 10 - 65 % ( w / v )] for isopycnic centrifugation at 265 , 000 × g in a beckman 70ti rotor for 21 h at 4 ° c . the gradients were fractionated at 4 ° c . from the bottom in 1 - ml aliquots and analyzed for protein concentration by the bca method ( against tris - sucrose gradient blanks ) and for chitin synthetase activity as described ( 9 ). fractions at a specific gravity of 1 . 20 - 1 . 22 , coincident with a peak of chitin synthetase activity , were pooled and stored at - 80 ° c . for subsequent assay of insulin binding and tyrosine phosphorylation of endogenous , membrane - associated proteins . aliquots of yeast plasma membranes were diluted in and ultracentrifuged at 130 , 000 × g for 30 min at 4 ° c . to remove sucrose . resuspended membranes ( 44 mg protein / ml ) were solubilized on ice for 30 min in 10 % triton x - 100 , 50 mm hepes , ph 7 . 5 , 1 mm edta , 1 % trasylol and pic . solubilized membranes were diluted to 7 - 8 mg protein / ml in 50 mm tris / hcl , ph 7 . 5 , 1 % trasylol , pic , 0 . 05 % triton x - 100 , 0 . 5 % bsa ( fraction v ). an equal volume of [ 125 - i ]- labeled insulin or igf - i , diluted in the buffer above , was added in the presence of excess hormone to the solubilized membranes in a final volume of 210 μl and incubated overnight at 4 ° c . the binding was terminated by addition of 25 % peg to solubilized membranes ( 9 : 1 vol / vol ). for chromatography on wga - agarose , membranes ( 5 - 6 mg protein / ml ) were solubilized for 3 h on ice in 50 mm hepes , ph 7 . 5 , 150 mm nacl buffer plus pic containing 1 % triton x - 100 . the mixture was centrifuged at 130 , 000 × g for 45 min at 4 ° c . and the supernatant was applied three successive times to a wga - agarose column ( 2 ml ). the column was washed with the hepes - salt buffer plus 0 . 1 % triton x - 100 and the adsorbed material was eluted in 1 ml fractions with 0 . 3 m n - acetylglucosamine in the same buffer . protein concentration of the eluates was assessed with the bio - rad assay using 50 mm hepes , ph 7 . 5 , 150 mm nacl buffer containing 0 . 1 % triton x - 100 and 0 . 3 m n - acetylglucosamine . insulin binding to wga - agarose purified protein was studied by incubating 25 μl of sample with 100 μl [ 125 i ] insulin ( 0 . 03 nm ), 25 μl of 50 mmhepes , ph 8 . 0 , 150 mm nacl overnight at 4 ° c . in the presence of indicated concentrations of porcine insulin . the final incubation volume ( 200 μl ) also 1 % bsa and 1 mg / ml bacitracin . to terminate the incubation , 100 μl of 0 . 3 % bovine gamma globulin and 300 μl of 25 % peg were added to the tubes and centrifuged at 2500 × g for 15 min at 4 ° c . the pellet was washed once with 300 ml of 12 . 5 % peg , the supernatant was aspirated and the radioactivity was quantitated in a gamma counter . the presence of high affinity binding sites on the surface of intact cells of wild - type strain s288c and cell wall defective mutant lb1 - 16a was demonstrated using a modification of the radioreceptor assay described by roth ( 8 ). specific binding of insulin to exponential phase s288c and lb1 - 16a cells was dependent on the nutrient composition of the medium ( table i ). table i______________________________________effect of glucose on specific binding of insulinto intact yeastwash buffer binding buffer binding /( 110 mm glucose ) ( 10 mm glucose ) displacement______________________________________ + + +/-- + +/++ - -/-- - -/- ______________________________________ pellets of s288c cells were washed in fresh ynb medium without supplement and with indicated concentrations of glucose . the binding assay was conducted as described above . when cells were washed in the absence of glucose and nitrogen sources ( ynb minus ammonium sulfate and amino acids ), and incubated in the presence of a low concentration of glucose ( 10 mm ) in the binding buffer , total binding accounted for 2 - 3 % of the tracer added and , of this , approximately 0 . 5 % represented specific binding . apparent equilibrium was achieved after 1 - 2 h of incubation at 4 ° c . ( fig1 ). displacement of insulin tracer could be observed over five orders of magnitude of insulin concentrations with 50 % bound to intact cells at approximately 5 × 10 - 9 m insulin ( fig2 ). although specific binding and displacement could not be demonstrated with stationary phase cells of s288c , even at concentrations of insulin higher than 1 × 10 - 6 m ,[ 125 i ] insulin bound to lb1 - 16a cells in the stationary phase was displaced by 50 % at approximately 2 × 10 - 8 m unlabeled ligand ( fig1 ). scatchard analyses of binding to exponential phase cells revealed a curvilinear plot , which indicated negative cooperativity or multiple classes of binding sites , one class with high affinity and low number and another with reciprocal properties . the high affinity insulin binding sites had an apparent kd between 0 . 75 to 0 . 9 nm . various insulin - like peptides and unrelated molecules were evaluated for the ability to displace [ 125 i ] insulin from exponential phase , wild - type cells ( fig3 ). of the ligands tested , insulin and igf - i were equally effective . proinsulin could displace approximately 30 % of the tracer at 1 × 10 - 6 m , whereas igf - ii , tgf - α , and egf failed to displace [ 125 i ] insulin . increasing concentrations of the yeast α - mating factor in the binding assay almost doubled the amount of insulin tracer binding to intact s288c cells of the α - mating type . specific binding of insulin and igf - i was also localized on sucrose - gradient purified , detergent solubilized plasma membranes , from exponential phase wild - type cells ( fig4 ). in these experiments , total binding accounted for 3 - 4 . 5 % of the added counts and specific binding represented 0 . 7 - 1 . 1 % of the total . scatchard analyses indicated a curvilinear plot and at least two different classes of binding sites , as observed in intact cells ( fig3 ). the high affinity class had an apparent k d of 0 . 4 nm for insulin and represented 6 × 10 9 sites per mg of protein . the low affinity class exhibited an apparent k d of 90 nm and accounts for 9 × 10 11 sites per mg of protein . igf - i specifically bound plasma membranes and the high affinity sites demonstrated a lower apparent k d of 0 . 25 nm which translates into 4 × 10 9 sites per mg of protein . the low affinity igf - i binding sites had an apparent k d of 15 nm and 1 × 10 11 sites per mg of protein . collectively , the studies on intact cells grown to exponential phase and plasma membranes isolated from them , suggested the presence of 20 - 200 high affinity binding sites per cell for insulin and igf - i . insulin and igf - i receptors in mammals apparently derive from a common ancestral molecule and share crossreactivity of their respective ligands , subunit compositions , and the ability to autophosphorylate in response to hormone binding . total binding of insulin to gradient purified membranes adsorbed to a wga - agarose column equilibrated at ph 8 . 0 after solubilization was approximately 4 . 2 % of the counts added . however , binding of the tracer to this sample in the presence of 1 × 10 - 6 m insulin represented 4 . 5 % of counts added to the incubation mixture ; i . e . specific binding could not be detected under these conditions . at ph 6 . 5 , 0 . 7 % of the counts added were specifically bound to wga - purified protein in the presence of excess unlabeled insulin . conversely , total binding of [ 125 i ] igf - i increased to nearly 8 %, and specific binding accounted for 1 . 7 % of counts detected in the presence of 1 × 10 - 6 m unlabeled igf - i or insulin . specificity of igf - i binding was not apparently dependent upon ph between values of 6 . 5 and 8 . 0 . for receptor isolation , cells from starter cultures were transferred to a total volume of twenty to forty liters of the same medium and incubated as above . when the culture reached a 600 = 4 , the glucose content of the medium was monitored with immobilized glucose oxidase strips ( ames diagnostics ; elkhart , ind .) and , coincident with glucose exhaustion prior to early stationary phase ( a 600 = 6 - 8 ), cells were harvested by tangential flow filtration . filtered cells were collected by centrifugation at 3000 - 3500 × g for 30 min at room temperature , washed once as above in conditioned medium deproteinized by ultrafiltration and supplemented with pic . washed cells ( approximately 100 g wet weight ) were diluted 1 : 1 with ice - cold 50mmmops buffer , ph 6 . 5 , supplemented with pic , and disrupted by bead beating in an ice - jacketed apparatus with seven or eight one - minute bursts , each interrupted by a three - minute cool - down period . cell breakage , as determined by microscopy and liberation of soluble protein was estimated at & gt ; 95 %. from this step on , all manipulations were conducted at 4 ° c . and fractions were maintained on ice . the broken cell preparation was centrifuged at 5000 × g for 30 min , to remove wall and organelle debris . the post - mitochondrial supernatant was centrifuged immediately at 130 , 000 × g for one hour in a sorvall sw ti41 rotor . pellets , consisting of the crude membrane fraction , were resuspended in 2 % ( v / v ) triton x - 100 ( peroxide and carbonyl free ), 50 mm mops buffer , ph 6 . 5 , and pic , and were incubated on ice for 30 min . the suspensions were centrifuged at 130 , 000 × g for 1 h to recover the detergent - solubilized proteins . solubilized membranes , adjusted to 0 . 2 % ( v / v ) triton x - 100 , in 50 mm mops , ph 6 . 5 or 8 . 0 , containing 5 mm mgcl 2 and pic , were applied at a rate of 2 . 5 ml / min to a wga agarose column ( 1 ml ), equilibrated in the same buffer . the column was washed , excess buffer removed by gravity and the semi - dry wga - agarose matrix was eluted by soaking for 30 min in 1 - ml of equilibration buffer ( 50 mm mops , ph 6 . 5 plus 0 . 1 % ( v / v ) triton x - 100 and pic ) containing 0 . 3 m n - acetylglucosamine and recovered by gravity flow as above . the wga fraction was adsorbed for 30 min to an insulin - agarose matrix ( 0 . 5 - 1 ml ) packed in a tuberculin syringe , equilibrated in 50 mmmops , ph 8 . 0 plus 0 . 1 % ( v / v ) triton x - 100 and pic . the eluate was recycled at least ten times through the column . the material retained in the syringe column was eluted with 1 - ml of 1 m , b 0 . 1 % triton x - 100 , 50 mm sodium acetate , ph 5 . 3 . immediately after elution , the ir - like protein was assayed for insulin binding and tyrosine kinase activity . to obtain purified irp from yeast membranes , an isolation procedure ( illustrated in fig5 ) was developed by adapting classical methods for the vertebrate ir ( 10 - 14 ). a typical purification of irp from 20 liters of yeast ( 100 g packed wet weight of cells ; 25 g of protein ) yielded 200 ng of protein , and is summarized in table ii . table ii__________________________________________________________________________purification of s . cerevisiaeinsulin receptor like - protein total total specific volume protein total activity activity purification yieldfraction ( ml ) ( mg ) fmol bound fmo / mg x - fold (%) __________________________________________________________________________crude membranes 23 228 5 . 1 0 . 004 1 100solubilized membrane 19 8 . 25 3 . 6 0 . 043 20 71wheat germ agglutinin 1 0 . 08 3 . 5 4 . 35 1964 68insulin - agarose 0 . 7 0 . 0004 2 . 3 575 264000 44__________________________________________________________________________ the final purification factor relative to the crude membranes is 264 , 000 - fold with exceptional enrichment achieved in the two affinity chromatography steps ( table ii , steps 3 and 4 ). analysis by reducing sds - page at each step of isolation demonstrated increasing purity ( fig6 ). at the final step of purification on insulin - agarose , irp is estimated to be 90 % homogeneous , as visualized by silver staining of nonreducing gels . in addition , the mass recovery , as measured by bca and predicted from the number of detectable binding sites in purified plasma membranes and intact cells , is quite low . in reducing gels , signals corresponding to subunits of irp could not be visualized by coomassie or silver staining methods , confirming previous reports of difficulty detecting purified receptor subunits by these techniques ( 12 , 13 ). however , bca staining of gels in situ yielded a faint signal at approximately 95 kda at the ultimate step of purification , and indicated a discrepancy between the methods of protein quantitation . binding of insulin to purified irp and tyrosine phosphorylation of the irp in response to insulin binding 10 ng of purified irp were incubated with 0 . 1 nm ( 30 , 000 cpm ) receptor grade porcine [ 125 i ] insulin in the presence and absence of 1 × 10 - 6 m unlabelled insulin . the ph of the incubation buffer was varied between 6 . 5 and 8 . 0 to identify appropriate conditions for binding and crosslinking of ligand to the purified receptor . after 16 h of incubation at 4 ° c ., the ir - like protein and ligand were crosslinked for 45 min with 0 . 3 m disuccinimidyl suberate ( 15 ). samples were treated with 4 × sample buffer containing 5 % ( v / v ) β - mercaptoethanol , boiled for five min , loaded onto a 7 . 5 % ( w / v ) polyacrylamide gels and electrophoresed according to laemmli ( 16 ). the gel was dried and exposed to x - omat film for five days at - 80 ° c . to display labeled bands . to compare binding of insulin to irp at each step of purification , samples of fractions were incubated with porcine [ 125 i ] insulin in the presence of 10 - 6 m hormone until equilibrium was reached and crosslinked to the tracer , as described above . samples were electrophoresed under non - reducing conditions in 7 . 5 % ( w / v ) polyacrylamide gels . companion gels were coomassie and silver stained or cut in 0 . 5 cm pieces which were counted in a tm analytic gamma counter for 5 min . protein concentrations were determined by longitudinal scanning of the stained gel and referenced to known quantities of molecular weight standard proteins . highly purified irp was added immediately to two reaction pools containing 50 μm atp , 5 mm mncl 2 , 50 mmmops buffer , ph 6 . 5 , with or without 10 - 7 m bovine insulin ( 24 i . u ./ mg ; 0 . 5 % zn ), preincubated at 30 ° c . for 30 min . irp phosphorylation reactions were initiated by addition of aliquots of 10 - 20 ng of protein to the reaction pools and incubated at 30 ° c . the reaction was stopped at indicated times by dispensing aliquots to boiling 4 × sample buffer ; the mixtures were further boiled for 5 min . samples were reduced with 5 % ( v / v ) β - mercaptoethanol , and electrophoresed in 7 . 5 % ( w / v ) sds - polyacrylamide gels . proteins were electrophoretically transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane that was blocked with 5 % ( w / v ) non - fat dry milk in ttbs ( 20 mm tris , 137 mm nacl , 0 . 1 % ( v / v ) tween - 20 ). monoclonal antiphosphotyrosine antibody 4g10 ( upstate biotechnology , inc .) was added at a 1 : 2 , 500 dilution and incubated 4 - 12 h . following incubation with the primary antibody , sheep anti - mouse ig - hrp whole antibody was used at a 1 : 10 , 000 dilution , and the signal from phosphotyrosine - modified proteins developed with the ecl chemiluminescence system was detected by exposure of blots to kodak x - omat film . to characterize the putative receptor , highly purified irp was incubated with [ 125 i ]- insulin until equilibrium was reached , crosslinked to the ligand , electrophoresed under non - reducing conditions and autoradiographed to determine the molecular weight of the complex . under nonreducing conditions , crosslinked [ 125 i ] insulin migrated exclusively with a diffuse species at 300 - 400 kda , but visualization of the complex was inhibited by excess unlabeled insulin in the reaction mixture ( fig7 a ). the molecular mass of irp corresponds to that of the mammalian holoreceptor , a disulfide - linked tetrameric glycoprotein comprised of two α and two β subunits , with masses of approximately 135 and 95 kda , respectively . under non - reducing conditions , the mammalian ir migrates to three discrete bands of 350 , 320 and 290 kda . the discrepancy in molecular weight between the holoreceptor and its individual subunits is a consequence of proteolysis during isolation of the more susceptible β subunit . if irp has a subunit analogous to the α subunit of the mammalian ir , the ligand binding site should reside in a polypeptide of approximately 135 kda . crosslinking of purified irp to 125 i - insulin tracer , followed by reducing sds - page and autoradiography demonstrated a 135 - 145 kda band ( fig7 b ). the binding was specific , as evidenced by the diminution of signal in the presence of excess insulin . [ 125 i ] insulin was displaced from purified irp by increasing amounts of non - radioactive hormone , with 50 % of the tracer displaced by 6 . 6 × 10 - 10 m insulin ( fig8 ). a scatchard plot of binding displayed curvature at insulin concentrations considered supraphysiological in mammals . in yeast , as in mammals , the physiologically relevant sites are more likely to be occupied at 0 . 1 - 10 nm hormone . the high affinity binding site has a capacity for sequestering 0 . 67 mole of insulin / mol of receptor . the calculation of the number of binding sites was based on a molecular weight of 400 kda and estimates of both k d and number of binding sites were not adjusted for small contributions from lower affinity receptors or cooperative interactions . the data provide a preliminary description of the high affinity site , since the data was fit to a model of single , noninteracting sites . in the presence of excess unlabeled hormone , 50 % of the tracer was displaced at 0 . 8 nm ( fig9 ). this k d is within the physiological range of insulin binding to the ir from many responsive mammalian cell types . however , of the total binding , approximately 30 % was considered nonspecific . these values are identical to those obtained from whole yeast cells and plasma membranes , and may reflect different affinities of heterologous , mammalian insulins for a widely divergent receptor from s . cerevisiae . the yeast protein more closely resembles typical mammalian α subunits than those assigned molecular weights between 100 and 125 kda from mammalian neuronal tissue or lower vertebrates and invertebrates . heterogeneity of molecular weight in the α subunit probably reflects a species specific degree of glycosylation , or limited proteolysis during isolation . therefore , the binding properties and the molecular weight are in striking agreement with all known ir α subunits . binding and crosslinking of [ 125 i ] insulin were ph dependent . the species at 135 - 145 kda was labeled specifically at ph 8 . 0 , but was not evident when incubation and crosslinking was performed at lower ph . conversely , another species at 67 kda was visualized when incubation and crosslinking was conducted at ph 7 . 0 , 7 . 5 and 8 . 0 , but the tracer was not displaced from this moiety in the presence of excess insulin . although specific binding was detected in solution at ph 6 . 5 for both species , neither was observed at that ph value because the reaction of dss with primary amines did not reach completion during the incubation period at 4 ° c . the 67 kda protein was labeled by crosslinking to [ 125 i ]- insulin but unlike the 135 kda moiety , the signal was enhanced by excess unlabeled hormone ( fig7 b ). the 67 kda polypeptide may be generated by proteolytic cleavage of the 135 kda species , or it may be an insulin binding protein , insulin degrading enzyme or a corresponding inhibitor protein ( 5 ). a protein of similar molecular weight with ir - like binding characteristics is present in another ascomycete , n . crassa , and has been proposed to mediate metabolic and growth effects elicited by physiological concentrations of insulin in this organism . the β subunit of the mammalian ir is a 95 kda polypeptide with intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity . an analogous subunit in the insulin - agarose purified irp was demonstrated by western blotting with monoclonal antiphosphotyrosine antibodies . a low basal level of phosphorylation was detected in species of 90 - 95 kda , . sup .˜ 55 kda and in the most abundant species of 45 - 48 kda ( fig9 ). when supplemented with atp and mncl 2 , strictly required cofactors for the mammalian receptor , the intensity of phosphotyrosine signals increased with time in each of the 90 - 95 , 55 , and 45 - 48 kda species . ( the 55 and 48 kda species are suspected to be proteolytic fragments of the 95 kda polypeptide .) maximum intensity was achieved between 5 - 10 min , with a 3 . 5 - to 4 - fold enhancement of phosphotyrosine formation , in good agreement with previous findings ( fig1 ). addition of insulin increased the apparent rate of irp autophosphorylation , and maximum signal intensity of 4 - fold over the basal level was reached at 5 min , compared to 3 . 5 - fold over the basal level gained in the absence of insulin after 10 min of incubation . irp tyrosine kinase activity was stimulated with igf - i and , consistent with the response to insulin , igf - i induced rapid formation of phosphotyrosine in irp , for a maximal stimulation of 4 - fold over the basal level ( fig1 ). considering the low basal level of phosphotyrosine in unstimulated irp , the magnitude of stimulation by insulin and igf - i may indicate an upper stoichiometric boundary for phosphate incorporation into tyrosine residues , similar to the level of 5 - 6 phosphates per β subunit monomer documented in the mammalian receptor ( 23 ). the change in the rate of autophosphorylation is also consistent with tight coupling of kinase activity to insulin binding and an apparent increase in the v max of the enzyme . the identity of the 95 kda polypeptide as the intact kinase domain of irp , and as the precursor of the 55 kda and the 45 - 48 kda species is supported by : 1 ) additivity of the molecular weight to comprise the 300 - 400 kda complex observed in non - reducing gels ( fig7 a ); 2 ) the demonstration of tyrosine autophosphorylation by a 41 kda cytoplasmic domain of the kinase subunit , created by systematic deletions within the mammalian ir gene to define the minimal essential region for kinase activity ( 17 ); and 3 ) previous reports of the smaller molecular weight moiety as the principal proteolytic product of the native 90 - 95 kda subunit from mammals . furthermore , many potential dibasic proteolytic cleavage sites distributed throughout the mammalian ir may be conserved in irp and render it susceptible to membrane - associated kex2 and other vacuolar proteases , to generate the observed fragments . these studies of irp permitted assessment of the molecular weight of the kinase and its potential for insulin - dependent signaling through tyrosine autophosphorylation , although application of traditional enzyme kinetic analyses to a protein which serves as its own substrate and has limited available sites for modification is difficult . effect of vanadate ion on irp tyrosine phosphorylation after insulin binding to enhance and stabilize the phosphotyrosine signal , sodium vanadate , a general phosphatase inhibitor and insulinomimetic agent , was included in the kinase reaction mixtures . in contrast to the behavior predicted from the mammalian ir , autophosphorylation of irp was completely inhibited by sodium vanadate ( fig1 ). when insulin was added to the reaction mixture with sodium vanadate , the protein reached a 3 . 4 - fold increase over the basal level of phosphotyrosine within 15 sec , but returned to the original level after 1 min ( fig1 ). this result may be explained by co - purification of a vanadate - stimulated phosphatase activity with the nearly homogeneous irp . exposure of intact yeast cells to insulin and sodium vanadate results in modifications of endogenous proteins that parallel the kinetics and magnitude of tyrosine phosphorylation of the isolated irp ( fig1 ). various phosphotyrosine - containing proteins and , notably , a 95 kda band appear after a 10 min incubation of cells resuspended in fresh medium alone . addition of insulin results in faster development of the 95 kda band which can be seen after 5 min of incubation , and in a more complex pattern of phosphotyrosine - modified species . when cells were exposed to sodium vanadate , the weak signal present at 1 min of incubation was absent throughout the time course of the experiment . concurrent exposure of cells to insulin and sodium vanadate caused intense phosphotyrosine signals in a discrete set of proteins , but the 95 kda species was not tyrosine phosphorylated in vivo ( fig6 ). in vitro data suggest that the kinase may have been activated by autophosphorylation prior to sample processing , but the modified substrates remained stable , even after the kinase returned to the basal state . although the effect of sodium vanadate on the irp - associated kinase from yeast is not known , vanadium is present in appreciable quantities in yeast cells ( 44 μg / g ), exerts effects on lipid metabolism , synthesis of mating factors , and is required for vegetative growth in certain fungi ( 18 ). a gene encoding the irp from s . cerevisiae can be cloned using a variety of approaches . e . coli expressing yeast proteins can be screened with antibodies that specifically bind to the irp ( see example 10 ). alternatively , nucleic acid hybridization approaches can be employed . a genomic library is obtained from stratagene ( san diego , calif .). the library is made from dna from s . cerevisiae strain s288c using the lambda - dash ™ vector ( catalog number 943901 ). the library is maintained in epicurian coli ™ sure ™ bacteria , also a product of stratagene . approximately 1 × 10 7 phage are screened using a cloned dna fragment encoding the human insulin receptor α subunit ( oncogene sciences , manhasset , n . y .). for cloning the β subunit , oligonucleotide probes can be designed by aligning the nucleotide sequences of the human , guinea pig and drosophila insulin receptor cdnas ( genbank ) and identifying conserved portions of the sequences . this approach is applicable to cloning of the α subunit as well . the inserts contained within hybridizing lambda clones are completely characterized with respect to restriction map and those fragments which are found to contain dna encoding irp or a portion thereof are sequenced completely . yeast strains harboring disrupted null alleles of scirp genes can be constructed according to standard methods ( 20 , 21 ). attenuated alleles can be created essentially as reported by kataoka et al ( 22 ) for ras genes from s . cerevisiae . overexpression alleles under the control of the adh1 ( alcohol dehydrogenase ) or the gallo ( galactose permease ) high - copy promoters can be assembled as previously described ( 23 - 25 ). the gene can be overexpressed in e . coli ( 19 ), schizosaccharomyces pombe or s . cerevisiae . cloned dna encoding the irp can be mutated in a site - specific fashion by any of the techniques well known in the art . most of these methods employ hybridization of one or more oligonucleotides having mismatches with the template at specific nucleotides to be mutated . hybridization of the oligonucleotide is followed by primer extension , either as a single synthetic round to completely copy a single - stranded template or as a polymerase chain reaction . mutants are then selected by preferential hybridization of an oligonucleotide containing the mutation and confirmed by dna sequencing . other mutations containing large deletions or insertions or fusions can be made by standard recombinant dna techniques . variants in irp can be expressed as described above and tested for biological activity in a number of assays . preferably , one would assay the mutant receptors for the ability to bind to insulin - like peptides , tyrosine autophosphorylation upon ligand binding or the ability to interact with downstream effector proteins . antibodies to the irp can be raised using any of the standard procedures known in the art . as immunogen , one can use gel - purified subunits of the irp , identified as described above and then eluted from the gel fragment . alternatively , successful cloning of a gene encoding each of the subunits of the irp would allow synthesis of peptides which correspond to portions of the irp polypeptides . the synthetic peptides are then coupled to a carrier protein , such as bovine serum albumin or keyhole limpet hemocyanin or to polystyrene beads for use in immunizing an animal , preferably a rabbit . the invention being thus described , various modifications of the materials and methods will be apparent to one skilled in the art . such modifications of the embodiments of the invention presented herein are to be considered within the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below . each of the references below is cited in the disclosure and is hereby incorporated in its entirety by such reference . 1 . broach , j . r . 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