Seino S, Steiner D F, Bell G I
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Chicago, IL 60637.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Nov;84(21):7423-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.21.7423.
The organization of the insulin gene of the owl or night monkey (Aotus trivirgatus), a New World primate, is similar to that of the human gene. The sequences of these two genes and flanking regions possess 84.3% homology. An unusual feature of the owl monkey gene is the partial duplication and insertion of a portion of the A-chain coding sequence into the 3' untranslated region. The insulin gene of this primate also lacks a region of tandem repeats that is present in the 5' flanking region of the human and chimpanzee genes. Owl monkey preproinsulin has 85.5% identity with the human insulin precursor and is the most divergent of the primate insulins/preproinsulins yet described. The differences between owl monkey and human preproinsulin include three substitutions in the signal peptide, two in the B chain, seven in the C peptide, and three in the A chain. One of these replacements is the conservative substitution of valine for isoleucine at position A2, an invariant site in all other vertebrate insulins and insulin-like growth factors. The substitutions in owl monkey insulin at B9, B27, A2, A4, and A17 alter its structure so that it has only 20% of the receptor-binding activity and 1% of the affinity with guinea pig anti-porcine insulin antibodies as compared to human insulin.
新大陆灵长类动物猫头鹰猴（夜猴）的胰岛素基因组织与人类基因相似。这两个基因及其侧翼区域的序列具有84.3%的同源性。猫头鹰猴基因的一个不寻常特征是A链编码序列的一部分部分重复并插入到3'非翻译区。这种灵长类动物的胰岛素基因在人类和黑猩猩基因的5'侧翼区域也缺乏串联重复区域。猫头鹰猴前胰岛素原与人类胰岛素前体有85.5%的一致性，是迄今所描述的灵长类胰岛素/前胰岛素原中差异最大的。猫头鹰猴和人类前胰岛素原之间的差异包括信号肽中有三个替换、B链中有两个、C肽中有七个以及A链中有三个。其中一个替换是在A2位置缬氨酸对异亮氨酸的保守替换，A2在所有其他脊椎动物胰岛素和胰岛素样生长因子中是一个不变位点。猫头鹰猴胰岛素在B9、B27、A2、A4和A17的替换改变了其结构，因此与人类胰岛素相比，它只有20%的受体结合活性和1%与豚鼠抗猪胰岛素抗体的亲和力。
