Glucocorticoid receptor isoforms direct distinct mitochondrial programs to regulate ATP production

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR), a nuclear receptor and major drug target, has a highly conserved minor splice variant, GRγ, which differs by a single arginine within the DNA binding domain. GRγ, which comprises 10% of all GR transcripts, is constitutively expressed and tightly conserved through ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Morgan, David J., Poolman, Toryn M., Williamson, Andrew J. K., Wang, Zichen, Clark, Neil R., Ma’ayan, Avi, Whetton, Anthony D., Brass, Andrew, Matthews, Laura C., Ray, David W.
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4881047/
Description
Summary:The glucocorticoid receptor (GR), a nuclear receptor and major drug target, has a highly conserved minor splice variant, GRγ, which differs by a single arginine within the DNA binding domain. GRγ, which comprises 10% of all GR transcripts, is constitutively expressed and tightly conserved through mammalian evolution, suggesting an important non-redundant role. However, to date no specific role for GRγ has been reported. We discovered significant differences in subcellular localisation, and nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttling in response to ligand. In addition the GRγ transcriptome and protein interactome was distinct, and with a gene ontology signal for mitochondrial regulation which was confirmed using Seahorse technology. We propose that evolutionary conservation of the single additional arginine in GRγ is driven by a distinct, non-redundant functional profile, including regulation of mitochondrial function.