A Comparison of Three Dimensional Structures of Biosynthesized Preproinsulin and Insulin Using NMR

  • Oh, Mi-Na (Department of Applied Biology and Chemistry, Konkuk University) ;
  • Mok, K.-Hun (Biomolecular Structure Research Unit, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Lim, Yoong-Ho (Department of Applied Biology and Chemistry, Konkuk University)
  • Published : 1998.12.31

Abstract

The solution conformation of the human insulin precursor, preproinsulin, is described in terms of NMR spectral data. NMR experiments were performed on preproinsulin, whose structure was compared with the NMR structure of native human insulin. Despite the presence of the C-peptide and/or the signal peptide, secondary structure analyses indicate that the native structures of the A and B chains are well conserved even in preproinsulin. The observed relative robustness of the native structure in precursor forms permits further protein engineering experiments where the C-peptide or N-terminal signal sequence can be altered for the purpose of increasing expression or purification yields when producing recombinant human insulin.

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