Members of the Insulin Receptor Family Contain Three Fibronectin Type III Domains

Abstract

The insulin receptor is a large transmembrane dimer, comprised of several domains. Detailed 3D structural information is available for the L1-cys-rich-L2 domains in the extracellular region (ectodomain) and for the tyrosine kinase catalytic domain in the cytoplasmic portion of the receptor. In addition, previous sequence analyses have identified two fibronectin type III domains in the C-terminal half of each ectodomain monomer. In this report, evidence is provided to show that a third fibronectin type III module exists between the L2 domain and the two previously described fibronectin type III domains.

Key Words:

• Fibronectin type III domains
• insulin receptor
• insulin-like growth factor receptor
• profile searching
• sequence analysis