H. Kohno et al., MUTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE ESTROGEN-RECEPTOR LIGAND-BINDING DOMAIN - INFLUENCE OF LIGAND STRUCTURE AND STEREOCHEMISTRY ON TRANSACTIVATION, Journal of molecular endocrinology, 16(3), 1996, pp. 277-285
The mouse estrogen receptor (mER) exhibits ligand stereochemical speci
ficity for indenestrol A (IA), a stilbestrol estrogen. IA has a chiral
C3 methyl group, and the mER preferentially binds the S-enantiomer (I
A-S). resulting in elevated biological activity when compared with the
IA-R enantiomer. To elucidate the mechanisms for this stereochemical
recognition, we have constructed a series of mERs with individual amin
o acid substitutions at Met521, His528, Met532, and Val537. The abilit
ies of yeast-expressed wild-type and mutant mERs to transactivate an e
strogen-responsive reporter gene construct were measured in the presen
ce of diethylstilbestrol (DES) and IA enantiomers. The concentration o
f IA-S required to induce half-maximal transactivation by wild-type mE
R was 10-fold lower than IA-R, which is attributed to the 15-fold grea
ter binding affinity for IA-S. Wild-type mER displayed similar dose-re
sponse curves for IA-R and demethyl IA, which lacks a C3 methyl group,
demonstrating that the presence and correct orientation of the C3 met
hyl group on the IA compound is required for high-affinity ligand bind
ing and transcriptional activity. Each mutant exhibited a reduced pref
erence for IA-S enantiomer with respect to transactivation, suggesting
that this region of the mER functions in ligand stereochemical recogn
ition and activation. A mutation at Met532 diminished DES- and IA-S-in
duced transactivation by 7.5-fold and 40-fold respectively, with minim
al change on their binding affinity. These data suggest that Met532 is
required for transactivation induced by the potent agonist, IA-S, and
the M532G mutation effectively uncouples IA-S ligand binding from tra
nsactivation. Use of these stereochemically different ligands in combi
nation with mutagenesis of the mER demonstrates that ligand structure
could influence transactivation by specifically altering the conformat
ion of the mER AF-2 region.