Synopses & Reviews
This volume summarizes the Fourth Meadowbrook Symposium held in October 1988. Exciting new findings are discussed in the following areas: The synthesis of a nucleotide sequence that binds a specific steroid receptor and acts as controlling element for gene expression; the control of gene transcription by the interaction between transacting factors and DNA recognition sequences; the membership of the transacting factors in a large gene family that includes also steroid hormone receptors, transcription factors, protooncogenes, and homeobox proteins. Other topics are receptor down regulation and quantitive relationships between receptor binding and biological response.
Synopsis
The first Meadowbrook Symposium was held in 1978 and during the intervening ten years our knowledge concerning how steroid hormones function at the level of gene expression has advanced by leaps and bounds. In this volume, which sum- marizes our fourth meeting, these advances are very evident. What seemed like science fiction ten years ago has become commonplace science. Who would have imagined that we could synthesize a nucleotide sequence that binds a specific steroid receptor and acts as a controlling element for gene expression? No one; but as is evident from the results reported in several chapters, this technique is yielding a wealth of information. Using these and other techniques it has become apparent that gene transcription is controlled by interactions between transacting factors and DNA recognition sequences (response elements). These transacting factors appear to be members of a large gene family that includes steroid hormone receptors, transcription factors, protooncogenes and homeobox proteins. Thus a great deal has been learned, but as usual, questions remain. Many of these questions are posed by the findings and observations found in several chapters in this volume. Non- hormone binding forms of steroid receptors and their relevance to receptor down regulation, recycling and biological response remain a mystery. The quantitative relationship between receptor binding and biological response still presents agonizing problems. These and many other intriguing questions are discussed in this volume and set the stage for what should be a most rewarding time in endocrinology. Winter 1989 ARUN K.
Table of Contents
Contents: Towards a Molecular Understanding of Steroid Binding to Glucocorticoid Receptors.- Regulation of Glucocorticoid Receptor Protein and Gene Expression by Glucocorticoids.- Modulation of Glucocorticoid-Induced Responses by Cyclic AMP in Lymphoid Cell Lines.- Differential Regulation of Tyrosine Amino-Transferase by Glucocorticoids: Transcriptional and Post-transcriptional Control.- Steroid Response Elements. Definition of a Minimal Promoter and Interaction with Other Activating Sequences.- GHF-1, A Tissue-Specific Transcription Factor, Is a Homeobox Protein.- Regulation of EGF Receptors and Nuclear Protoncogenes by Estrogen.- Regulation of the Rat Insulin II Gene:
cis- and
transacting Factors.- Thyroid Hormone Regulation of Rat Liver S14 Gene Expression.- Hormonal and Developmental Regulation of Xenopus Egg Protein Genes.- Inhibition of the Intracelllular Transformation of Rat Ventral Prostate Androgen Receptor by 3'- Deoxyadenosine.- Androgen Action in Rat Liver: Changes in Androgen Sensitivity During Maturation and Aging.- Inhibition of Cell Proliferation by a Nuclear Type II Ligand: Methyl-P-Hydroxyphenylactate.- Promoter Specific Activating Domains of the Chicken Progesterone Receptor.- Index.