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Molecular and Cellular Biology, December 2001, p. 8371-8384, Vol. 21, No. 24
Department of Pharmacology, Division of
Clinical and Molecular Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, New
York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016
Received 27 July 2001/Accepted 17 Septmber 2001
The identification of a novel coregulator for nuclear hormone
receptors, designated NRIF3, was recently reported (D. Li et al., Mol.
Cell. Biol. 19:7191-7202, 1999). Unlike most known coactivators, NRIF3
exhibits a distinct receptor specificity in interacting with and
potentiating the activity of only TRs and RXRs but not other examined
nuclear receptors. However, the molecular basis underlying such
specificity is unclear. In this report, we extended our study of
NRIF3-receptor interactions. Our results suggest a bivalent interaction
model, where a single NRIF3 molecule utilizes both the C-terminal
LXXIL (receptor-interacting domain 1 [RID1]) and the
N-terminal LXXLL (RID2) modules to cooperatively interact with TR or
RXR (presumably a receptor dimer), with the spacing between RID1 and
RID2 playing an important role in influencing the affinity of the
interactions. During the course of these studies, we also uncovered an
NRIF3-NRIF3 interaction domain. Deletion and mutagenesis analyses
mapped the dimerization domain to a region in the middle of NRIF3
(residues 84 to 112), which is predicted to form a coiled-coil
structure and contains a putative leucine zipper-like motif. By using
Gal4 fusion constructs, we identified an autonomous transactivation
domain (AD1) at the C terminus of NRIF3. Somewhat surprisingly,
full-length NRIF3 fused to the DNA-binding domain of Gal4 was found to
repress transcription of a Gal4 reporter. Further analyses mapped a
novel repression domain (RepD1) to a small region at the N-terminal
portion of NRIF3 (residues 20 to 50). The NRIF3 gene encodes at least
two additional isoforms due to alternative splicing. These two isoforms
contain the same RepD1 region as NRIF3. Consistent with this, Gal4
fusions of these two isoforms were also found to repress transcription.
Cotransfection of NRIF3 or its two isoforms did not relieve the
transrepression function mediated by their corresponding Gal4 fusion
proteins, suggesting that the repression involves a mechanism(s) other
than the recruitment of a titratable corepressor. Interestingly, a single amino acid residue change of a potential phosphorylation site in
RepD1 (Ser28 to Ala) abolishes its transrepression
function, suggesting that the coregulatory property of NRIF3 (or its
isoforms) might be subjected to regulation by cellular signaling. Taken
together, our results identify NRIF3 as an interesting coregulator that possesses both transactivation and transrepression domains and/or functions. Collectively, the NRIF3 family of coregulators (which includes NRIF3 and its other isoforms) may play dual roles in mediating
both positive and negative regulatory effects on gene expression.
0270-7306/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/MCB.21.24.8371-8384.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Domain Structure of the NRIF3 Family of Coregulators Suggests
Potential Dual Roles in Transcriptional Regulation
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Pharmacology, Division of Clinical and Molecular Endocrinology,
Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Ave., New York, NY 10016. Phone: (212) 263-6279. Fax: (212)
263-7701. E-mail: herbert.samuels{at}med.nyu.edu.
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