Open AccessGenomic organization of the human thyroid hormone receptor α (c-erbA-1) gene
Author(s) -
Vincent Laudet,
Agnès Bégué,
Catherine Henry-Duthoit,
Anita Joubel,
Patrick Martin,
D Stéhelin,
Simon Saule
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
nucleic acids research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 9.008
H-Index - 537
eISSN - 1362-4954
pISSN - 0305-1048
DOI - 10.1093/nar/19.5.1105
Subject(s) - library science , biology , classics , history , computer science
The thyroid hormone receptor alpha (THRA or c-erbA-1) gene belongs to a family of genes which encode nuclear receptors for various hydrophobic ligands such as steroids, vitamin D, retinoic acid and thyroid hormones. These receptors are composed of several domains important for hormone-binding, DNA-binding, dimerization and activation of transcription. We show here that the human THRA gene is organized in 10 exons distributed along 27 kbp of genomic DNA on chromosome 17. The position of the introns in human THRA is highly conserved when compared to the chicken gene despite their differing lengths. The N-terminal A/B domain as well as the 5' untranslated region is encoded by two exons. Interestingly, each of the putative zinc fingers of the receptor DNA-binding domain is encoded by one exon and the hormone-binding domain is assembled from three exons. The two last exons of the gene are alternatively spliced to generate two different messenger RNAs. In addition, we confirm that another gene, belonging to the nuclear receptor superfamily, ear-1, overlaps with the 3' region of THRA in an opposite transcriptional orientation.