Nuclear receptor corepressor recruitment by unliganded thyroid hormone receptor in gene repression during Xenopus laevis development

Thyroid hormone receptors (TR) act as activators of transcription in the presence of the thyroid hormone (T-3) and as repressors in its absence. While many in vitro approaches have been used to study the molecular mechanisms of TR action, their physiological relevance has not been addressed. Here we investigate how TR regulates gene expression during vertebrate postembryonic development by using T-3-dependent amphibian metamorphosis as a model. Earlier studies suggest that TR acts as a repressor during premetamorphosis when T3 is absent. We hypothesize that corepressor complexes containing the nuclear receptor corepressor (N-CoR) are key factors in this TR-dependent gene repression, which is important for premetamorphic tadpole growth. To test this hypothesis, we isolated Xenopus laevis N-CoR (xN-CoR) and showed that it was present in pre- and metamorphic tadpoles. Using a chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, we demonstrated that xN-CoR was recruited to the promoters of T, response genes during premetamorphosis and released upon T3 treatment, accompanied by a local increase in histone acetylation. Furthermore, overexpression of a dominant-negative N-CoR in tadpole tail muscle led to increased transcription from a T-3-dependent promoter. Our data indicate that N-CoR is recruited by unliganded TR to repress target gene expression during premetamorphic animal growth, an important process that prepares the tadpole for metamorphosis.