The Interaction between the Forkhead Thyroid Transcription Factor TTF-2 and the Constitutive Factor CTF/NF-1 Is Required for Efficient Hormonal Regulation of the Thyroperoxidase Gene Transcription*

The forkhead thyroid-specific transcription factor TTF-2 is the main mediator of thyrotropin and insulin regulation of thyroperoxidase (TPO) gene expression. This function depends on multimerization and specific orientation of its DNA-binding site, suggesting that TTF-2 is part of a complex interaction network within the TPO promoter. This was confirmed by transfection experiments and by protein-DNA interaction studies, which demonstrated that CTF/NF1 proteins bind 10 base pairs upstream of the TTF-2-binding site to enhance its action in hormone-induced expression of the TPO gene. GST pull-down assays showed that TTF-2 physically interacts with CTF/NF1 proteins. In addition, we demonstrate that increasing the distance between both transcription factors binding sites by base pair insertion results in loss of promoter activity and in a drastic decrease on the ability of the promoter to respond to the hormones. CTF/NF1 is a family of transcription factors that contributes to constitutive and cell-type specific gene expression. Originally identified as factors implicated in the replication of adenovirus, this group of proteins (CTF/NF1-A, -B, -C, and -X) is now known to be involved in the regulation of several genes. In contrast to other reports regarding the involvement of these proteins in inducible gene expression, we show here that members of this family of transcription factors are regulated by hormones. With the use of specific CTF/NF1 DNA probes and antibodies we demonstrate that CTF/NF1-C is a thyrotropin-, cAMP-, and insulin-inducible protein. Thus CTF/NF1 proteins do not only mediate hormone-induced gene expression cooperating with TTF-2, but are themselves hormonally regulated. All these findings are clearly of important value in understanding the mechanisms governing the transcription regulation of RNA polymerase II promoters, which often contain binding sites for multiple transcription factors.