Thyroid hormone and retinoic acid receptors form heterodimers with retinoid X receptors on direct repeats, palindromes, and inverted palindromes.
Thyroid hormone [3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3)] and retinoic acid (RA) receptors (T3Rs and RARs) are ligand-dependent transcription factors that regulate the transcription of T3- and RA-responsive genes, respectively, by binding to specific DNA sequences as homodimers or as heterodimers with retinoid X receptors (RXRs). These T3 and RA response elements are composed to two copies of the consensus half-site motif PuGGTCA. However, the specificity of the receptor complexes for response elements is dictated by their discrimination of the distance and the relative orientation of the half-sites. We found that both T3R-RXR and RAR-RXR heterodimers act functionally on all three response element configurations: direct repeats, palindromes, and inverted palindromes. On direct repeats, T3R-RXR and RAR-RXR heterodimers showed maximal trans-activation and in vitro DNA binding affinity when the core binding motifs were spaced by 4, 2, or 1 and 5 or 2 nucleotides, respectively, whereas both heterodimer types were mostly active on palindromes with no spacing. The binding of and trans-activation by T3R-RXR and RAR-RXR heterodimers on inverted palindromes was maximal with a half-site spacing of 5 or 6 and 7 or 8 nucleotides, respectively. Inverted palindromes, however, were the most specific response elements, because they were the only ones on which the activities of homodimeric and heterodimeric receptor complexes could be discriminated. We developed a model that suggests a sterical link between the optimal spacings observed with direct repeats and inverted palindromes. Taken together, the experimental data and the model provide further understanding of the regulation of T3-and retinoid-responsive genes.
Clinique de Dermatologie, Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire, Genève, Switzerland.
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Schräder
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Carlberg
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001704:Biopolymers; D002460:Cell Line; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D004330:Drosophila; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011485:Protein Binding; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear / Q000378:metabolism*; D018168:Receptors, Retinoic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D047488:Retinoid X Receptors; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D015533:Transcriptional Activation; D014284:Triiodothyronine / Q000378:metabolism*
D001704:Biopolymers; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear; D018168:Receptors, Retinoic Acid; D047488:Retinoid X Receptors; D014157:Transcription Factors; D014284:Triiodothyronine; D004247:DNA