Insulin activates guanosine 5'-[gamma-thio] triphosphate (GTP gamma S) binding to a novel GTP-binding protein, GIR, from human placenta.

A novel GTP-binding protein, GIR, along with insulin receptor (IR), has been partially purified from human placenta. A non-hydrolyzable substrate, GTP gamma S which is known to bind to GTP-binding proteins with high affinity, reduces insulin binding to IR-GIR fraction by approximately 29% and 100 nM insulin stimulates GTP gamma S binding to IR-GIR fraction by approximately five-fold. The molecular weight of the protein (may be subunit) that binds to 8-azido-GTP, a photoaffinity label for G-proteins, is approximately 66,000.