Phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1 on multiple serine residues, 612, 632, 662, and 731, modulates insulin action.

Okadaic acid has been described previously as being a negative regulator of insulin signaling, as it inhibits insulin stimulation of glucose transport. In addition, this drug induces on insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) a decrease in tyrosine phosphorylation, concomitantly with an increase in serine/threonine phosphorylation. The present work was aimed at the identification of the serine/threonine residues that, upon phosphorylation, might be involved in modulating insulin signaling. To this end, we studied double-point mutants of IRS-1, in which serines 612/632 and 662/731 were replaced with alanine. These are four plausible sites of phosphorylation by mitogen-activated protein kinases and are in the immediate proximity of tyrosine residues, which are potential sites of interaction with phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase Src homology 2 domains. Using transient expression in 293 EBNA cells, we demonstrate that serines 612, 632, 662, and 731 and mitogen-activated protein kinases are not involved in the okadaic acid effect on IRS-1. Rather, these serines appear to play a role in modulating basal and insulin-stimulated IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation, association of IRS-1, with p85, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase activity in the IRS-1.p85 immune complex, since mutation of these sites enhances these events. Our findings suggest the existence of an IRS-1 desensitization mechanism resulting from serine/threonine phosphorylation, occurring at least on serines 612, 632, 662, and 731.