Can human insulin be produced in bacteria?

Although human insulin and other hormones could be produced in bacteria by introducing a corresponding coding region into a vector that could support bacterial expression, there are some limitations of these techniques. For example, some hormones require additional processing. They could be naturally made as a long precursor polypeptide from which a functional fragment has to be carved out by specific enzymes. They may also require modifications by covalent binding to some additional moieties and this process may require complex processing machinery that may be missing in bacteria. In some instances, the original precursor indeed could be made in bacteria, but then is processed artificially to a form that resembles the one found in humans. I do not know whether you would consider this “made in bacteria”.


Finally, there is a minor, but very important detail that sometime hampers the use of bacterially-made proteins, such as insulin, in human applications. In our cells, protein synthesis typically starts from methionine, but in bacteria such as E.coli the first amino acid is formyl-methionine. This is a minor change and a peculiarity of the initiation of synthesis in these bacteria, but in some cases our immune system may recognize bacterially-produced protein as a foreign, even though all the other amino acids are the same and in the right order. There are some workarounds for this problem, one being producing the proteins in yeast (not bacteria), which are initiating translation similarly to us.

Can human insulin be produced in bacteria?
yes
Reply:The human gene that codes for insulin can be inserted into E. coli. The E. coli then produce insulin which can be purified and utilized.
Reply:yes if the human insulin gene is put into a bacterial vector and cloned
Reply:yes
Reply:Yes
Reply:Yes. (This is how diabetics get the insulin that they need.)
Reply:Yes, Sir
Reply:Artificial insulin synthesis is done in that procedure.
Reply:I'll add my two cents...


Before there was recombinant insulin, Diabetics had to get their insulin from some other source. That source was usually from cow pancreases as a by product of commercial meat processing. Bovine insulin was probably the biggest source of insulin before a bacterial recombinant was engineered to make insulin.