CLONING OF THE ALPHA-OVINE AND BETA-OVINE THYROID-HORMONE RECEPTOR CDNAS

Thyroid hormones modulate critical responses in a variety of tissues d uring development. While the mechanisms underlying many of these respo nses are uncertain, specific thyroid hormone nuclear receptor proteins likely play key roles in these processes. Many studies investigating the perinatal role of thyroid hormones in maturation have focused on e vents occurring in the developing rodent. However, the ovine fetus als o set-yes as a useful model for human fetal thyroid system function. T o extend the utility of the ovine model, the cDNAs representing the ov ine family of nuclear thyroid receptors have been cloned, sequenced, a nd used to characterize mRNA species in ovine brain.