The p160 coactivators, steroid receptor coactivator 1, glucocorticoid receptor interacting protein 1 (GRIP1) and the activator of thyroid and retinoic acid receptor, have two activation domains, AD1 and AD2, which transmit the activation signal from the DNA-bound nuclear receptor to the chromatin and/or transcription machinery. In screening for mammalian proteins that bind the AD2 of GRIP1, we identified a mouse actin-binding protein, alpha actinin 2 (mACTN2). mACTN2 was expressed in the heart, skeletal muscle, lung, brain and testis, but there was no expression in the spleen, liver or kidney. Interestingly, the expression level of mACTN2 in the developing embryo depended on the embryonic stage. We further demonstrated that mACTN2 could enhance two transactivation activities of GRIP1, which in turn could enhance the homodimerization of mACTN2. Importantly, mACTN2 not only served as a primary coactivator for androgen receptor, estrogen receptor and thyroid receptor activities, but also acted synergistically with GRIP1 to enhance these nuclear receptor (NR) functions. However, the NR binding motif, LXXLL, conserved in mACTN2 and other actinin family proteins, might be a dispensable domain for its coactivator roles in NRs. These findings suggested that mACTN2 might play an important role in GRIP1-induced NR coactivator functions.

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