The transcriptional activity of estrogen receptors (ERs) can be regulated by ligands as well as agents such as dopamine, which stimulate intracellular signaling pathways able to communicate with these receptors. We examined the ability of SKF-82958 (SKF), a previously characterized full dopamine D1 receptor agonist, to stimulate the transcriptional activity of ER␣ and ER. Treatment of HeLa cells with SKF-82958 stimulated robust ER␣-dependent transcription from an estrogen-response element-E1b-CAT reporter in the absence of estrogen, and this was accompanied by increased receptor phosphorylation. However, induction of ER-directed gene expression under the same conditions was negligible. In our cell model, SKF treatment did not elevate cAMP levels nor enhance transcription from a cAMPresponse element-linked reporter. Control studies revealed that SKF-82958, but not dopamine, competes with 17-estradiol for binding to ER␣ or ER with comparable relative binding affinities. Therefore, SKF-82958 is an ER␣-selective agonist. Transcriptional activation of ER␣ by SKF was more potent than expected from its relative binding activity, and further examination revealed that this synthetic compound induced expression of an AP-1 target gene in a tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-response element (TRE)-dependent manner. A putative TRE site upstream of the estrogen-response element and the amino-terminal domain of the receptor contributed to, but were not required for, SKF-induced expression of an ER␣-dependent reporter gene. Overexpression of the AP-1 protein c-Jun, but not c-Fos, strongly enhanced SKF-induced ER␣ target gene expression but only when the TRE was present. These studies provide information on the ability of a ligand that weakly stimulates ER␣ to yield strong stimulation of ER␣-dependent gene expression through cross-talk with other intracellular signaling pathways producing a robust combinatorial response within the cell.The effects of estrogens are mediated by the products of two separate genes, one for estrogen receptor-␣ (ER␣) 1 and another for ER. Both are members of the nuclear receptor superfamily of ligand-activated transcription factors. The mechanisms by which ERs activate target gene expression in response to estrogen signaling have been the subject of intense investigation since their respective cDNAs were cloned (1, 2). Because of the relatively recent identification of ER, the bulk of our knowledge regarding the genomic effects of estrogens is derived from ER␣ studies. For instance, upon binding to 17-estradiol (E 2 ), ER␣ undergoes a series of biochemical alterations including increased phosphorylation and conformational changes as well as homodimerization and binding of the receptor to its target DNA sequence, the estrogen-response element (ERE; see Refs. 3-5). ER also undergoes conformational changes in response to ligand binding (6, 7) and is phosphorylated in vivo (8). With respect to DNA binding, ER binds to the same consensus ERE that ER␣ does, although the latter receptor has an ϳ4-fold ...