| Structural highlights
Disease
[GCR_HUMAN] Defects in NR3C1 are a cause of glucocorticoid resistance (GCRES) [MIM:138040]; also known as cortisol resistance. It is a hypertensive, hyperandrogenic disorder characterized by increased serum cortisol concentrations. Inheritance is autosomal dominant.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Function
[GCR_HUMAN] Receptor for glucocorticoids (GC). Has a dual mode of action: as a transcription factor that binds to glucocorticoid response elements (GRE), both for nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, and as a modulator of other transcription factors. Affects inflammatory responses, cellular proliferation and differentiation in target tissues. Could act as a coactivator for STAT5-dependent transcription upon growth hormone (GH) stimulation and could reveal an essential role of hepatic GR in the control of body growth. Involved in chromatin remodeling. Plays a significant role in transactivation.[6]
Publication Abstract from PubMed
Many genomes contain families of paralogs--proteins with divergent function that evolved from a common ancestral gene after a duplication event. To understand how paralogous transcription factors evolve divergent DNA specificities, we examined how the glucocorticoid receptor and its paralogs evolved to bind activating response elements [(+)GREs] and negative glucocorticoid response elements (nGREs). We show that binding to nGREs is a property of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) DNA-binding domain (DBD) not shared by other members of the steroid receptor family. Using phylogenetic, structural, biochemical, and molecular dynamics techniques, we show that the ancestral DBD from which GR and its paralogs evolved was capable of binding both nGRE and (+)GRE sequences because of the ancestral DBD's ability to assume multiple DNA-bound conformations. Subsequent amino acid substitutions in duplicated daughter genes selectively restricted protein conformational space, causing this dual DNA-binding specificity to be selectively enhanced in the GR lineage and lost in all others. Key substitutions that determined the receptors' response element-binding specificity were far from the proteins' DNA-binding interface and interacted epistatically to change the DBD's function through DNA-induced allosteric mechanisms. These amino acid substitutions subdivided both the conformational and functional space of the ancestral DBD among the present-day receptors, allowing a paralogous family of transcription factors to control disparate transcriptional programs despite high sequence identity.
Distal substitutions drive divergent DNA specificity among paralogous transcription factors through subdivision of conformational space.,Hudson WH, Kossmann BR, de Vera IM, Chuo SW, Weikum ER, Eick GN, Thornton JW, Ivanov IN, Kojetin DJ, Ortlund EA Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Jan 12;113(2):326-31. doi:, 10.1073/pnas.1518960113. Epub 2015 Dec 29. PMID:26715749[7]
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
References
- ↑ Vottero A, Kino T, Combe H, Lecomte P, Chrousos GP. A novel, C-terminal dominant negative mutation of the GR causes familial glucocorticoid resistance through abnormal interactions with p160 steroid receptor coactivators. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Jun;87(6):2658-67. PMID:12050230
- ↑ Hurley DM, Accili D, Stratakis CA, Karl M, Vamvakopoulos N, Rorer E, Constantine K, Taylor SI, Chrousos GP. Point mutation causing a single amino acid substitution in the hormone binding domain of the glucocorticoid receptor in familial glucocorticoid resistance. J Clin Invest. 1991 Feb;87(2):680-6. PMID:1704018 doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.1172/JCI115046
- ↑ Malchoff DM, Brufsky A, Reardon G, McDermott P, Javier EC, Bergh CH, Rowe D, Malchoff CD. A mutation of the glucocorticoid receptor in primary cortisol resistance. J Clin Invest. 1993 May;91(5):1918-25. PMID:7683692 doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.1172/JCI116410
- ↑ Ruiz M, Lind U, Gafvels M, Eggertsen G, Carlstedt-Duke J, Nilsson L, Holtmann M, Stierna P, Wikstrom AC, Werner S. Characterization of two novel mutations in the glucocorticoid receptor gene in patients with primary cortisol resistance. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2001 Sep;55(3):363-71. PMID:11589680
- ↑ Kino T, Stauber RH, Resau JH, Pavlakis GN, Chrousos GP. Pathologic human GR mutant has a transdominant negative effect on the wild-type GR by inhibiting its translocation into the nucleus: importance of the ligand-binding domain for intracellular GR trafficking. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Nov;86(11):5600-8. PMID:11701741
- ↑ Psarra AM, Sekeris CE. Glucocorticoids induce mitochondrial gene transcription in HepG2 cells: role of the mitochondrial glucocorticoid receptor. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2011 Oct;1813(10):1814-21. doi:, 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2011.05.014. Epub 2011 Jun 2. PMID:21664385 doi:10.1016/j.bbamcr.2011.05.014
- ↑ Hudson WH, Kossmann BR, de Vera IM, Chuo SW, Weikum ER, Eick GN, Thornton JW, Ivanov IN, Kojetin DJ, Ortlund EA. Distal substitutions drive divergent DNA specificity among paralogous transcription factors through subdivision of conformational space. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Jan 12;113(2):326-31. doi:, 10.1073/pnas.1518960113. Epub 2015 Dec 29. PMID:26715749 doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1518960113
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