Gamma retinoic acid receptor

Abstract

A novel gamma retinoic acid receptor is disclosed. The novel receptor is encoded for by cDNA carried on plasmid pGEM-hRARgamma, which has been deposited with the American Type Culture Collection for patent purposes. Chimeric receptor proteins are also disclosed. The chimera contain at least one functional domain from the new gamma retinoic acid receptor.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates generally to ligand-responsive regulatory proteins and genes encoding them. More particularly, the present invention relates to a new retinoic acid receptor protein and the gene that encodes it, modification of the new retinoic acid receptor protein and gene by recombinant DNA and other genetic engineering techniques, plus uses of the new retinoic acid receptor protein and gene, both unmodified and modified.[0002] It is known that hormones like the glucocorticoid and thyroid hormones enter cells by facilitated diffusion. It is also known that hormones then bind to specific receptor proteins, thereby creating a hormone / receptor complex. The binding of hormone to the receptor initiates an alosteric alteration of the receptor protein. As a result of this alteration, it is believed that the hormone / receptor complex is capable of binding with high affinity to certain specific sites on the chromatin DNA. Such sites, which are referred to as hormone res...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

A major obstacle to further understanding of the specifics of gene regulation by exogenous inducers such as hormones has been the lack of availability of receptor proteins in sufficient quantity and purity to allow such proteins to be adequately analyzed and characterized.

This same lack of availability has thwarted the use of receptors in diagnostic assays to determine the presence of exogenous inducers (e.g., the hormones) in various body fluids and tissues, as well as their use as "prototypes" for engineering chimeric receptor protein analogs.

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