Probing the Interactions between the Retinal Insulin Receptor and Its Downstream Effectors

The insulin receptor (IR) is a transmembrane receptor that is activated by insulin. It belongs to the large class of tyrosine kinase receptors. It induces cellular responses by phosphorylating proteins on their tyrosine residues. The IR and IR signaling proteins are widely distributed throughout the central nervous system (1). IR signaling is shown to regulate food intake (2,3) and neuronal growth and differentiation (4,5).