Question

How did an American Company, Eli Lilly use the knowledge of r-DNA technology to produce an insulin?

Answer 1

The gene responsible for insulin production of human is inserted into the plasmids of E.coli bacteria and this E.coli bacteria is developed in larger quantities on the culture medium in the laboratory.

In humans, immature pro-insulin contains A, B and C-peptide chains. The С peptide is not present in the mature insulin and is removed during maturation into insulin. The main challenge for production of insulin using rDNA technique was getting insulin assembled into a mature form. In 1983, Eli Lilly, an American company, first prepared two DNA sequences corresponding to A and В chains of human insulin and introduced them in plasmids of E. coli to produce insulin chains. Chains A and В were produced separately, extracted and combined by creating disulfide bonds to form human insulin (humulin).