Transcription regulation by steroid hormones, vitamin derivatives, and metabolites is mediated by nuclear receptors (NRs), which play an important role in ligand-dependent gene expression and human health. NRs function as homodimers or heterodimers and are involved in a combinatorial, coordinated and sequentially orchestrated exchange between coregulators (corepressors, coactivators). The architecture of DNA-bound functional dimers positions the coregulators proteins. We previously demonstrated that retinoic acid (RAR-RXR) and vitamin D3 receptors (VDR-RXR) heterodimers recruit only one coactivator molecule asymmetrically without steric hindrance for the binding of a second cofactor. We now address the problem of homodimers for which the presence of two identical targets enhances the functional importance of the mode of binding. Using structural and biophysical methods and RAR as a model, we could dissect the molecular mechanism of coactivator recruitment to homodimers. Our study reveals an allosteric mechanism whereby binding of a coactivator promotes formation of nonsymmetrical RAR homodimers with a 2∶1 stoichiometry. Ligand conformation and the cofactor binding site of the unbound receptor are affected through the dimer interface. A similar control mechanism is observed with estrogen receptor (ER) thus validating the negative cooperativity model for an established functional homodimer. Correlation with published data on other NRs confirms the general character of this regulatory pathway.allostery | structure T he superfamily of nuclear receptors (NRs) comprises liganddependent transcription factors involved in the regulation of gene expression. They constitute key drug targets for human diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis, obesity, or type II diabetes (1-2). NRs share a common structural organization with a variable amino-terminal domain, a conserved DNA-binding domain (DBD), and a C-terminal ligand-binding domain (LBD) linked by a flexible hinge peptide. In addition to the ligand-binding pocket, the LBD comprises dimerization surfaces and the sites for coregulator interactions. In the classic mode of action, in absence of ligand, some NRs are associated with corepressors (NCoRs) that harbor histone-deacetylase activity to maintain the chromatin in a transcriptionally silent state (3-4). Upon ligand binding, DNA-bound receptors recruit coactivators like the steroid receptor coactivator 1 (SRC-1), a member of p160 CoA family (5), to enhance target gene expression. The receptor interaction domain (RID) of the coactivators is responsible for the interaction with NRs and contains several copies of the short consensus interaction motif LXXLL (6).The vast majority of NRs functions as dimers. RAR, like the vitamin D (VDR) and thyroid hormone (TR) receptors, heterodimerizes with rexinoid receptors (RXRs) (7). Their ability to form homodimers is also documented (8-10). RAR homodimers have been shown to be functional in yeast using a two-hybrid system, and their activity is further enhanced by the presence of SRC-2 c...

Retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and Retinoid X nuclear receptors (RXRs) are ligand-dependent transcriptional modulators that execute their biological action through the generation of functional heterodimers. RXR acts as an obligate dimer partner in many signalling pathways, gene regulation by rexinoids depending on the liganded state of the specific heterodimeric partner. To address the question of the effect of rexinoid antagonists on RAR/RXR function, we solved the crystal structure of the heterodimer formed by the ligand binding domain (LBD) of the RARα bound to its natural agonist ligand (all-trans retinoic acid, atRA) and RXRα bound to a rexinoid antagonist (LG100754). We observed that RARα exhibits the canonical agonist conformation and RXRα an antagonist one with the C-terminal H12 flipping out to the solvent. Examination of the protein-LG100754 interactions reveals that its propoxy group sterically prevents the H12 associating with the LBD, without affecting the dimerization or the active conformation of RAR. Although LG100754 has been reported to act as a ‘phantom ligand’ activating RAR in a cellular context, our structural data and biochemical assays demonstrate that LG100754 mediates its effect as a full RXR antagonist. Finally we show that the ‘phantom ligand effect’ of the LG100754 is due to a direct binding of the ligand to RAR that stabilizes coactivator interactions thus accounting for the observed transcriptional activation of RAR/RXR.