Estrogen Receptor

Estrogen receptors (ERs) includes the nuclear receptor (NR) family (ERα and ERβ) and membrane estrogen receptors (mERs; G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30)). Noteworthy, ERs are generally referred to as ERα (NR3A1) and ERβ (NR3A2). ERs (ERα and ERβ) act as ligand-activated transcription factors, which, upon binding ligand, dimerize and translocate to the nucleus where they activate or repress the transcription of a large number of genes, thus modulating critical physiologic processes. Like others members of NRs, ERs contain evolutionarily conserved structurally and functionally distinct domains: N- terminal (NTD, A/B domains, AF-1), DNA binding domain (DBD, C domain), the hinge (D domain), the C-terminal region containing the ligand binding domain (LBD, E/F domain, AF-2). The two ERs share a high degree of sequence homology except in their NH2-terminal domains, and they have similar affinities for E2 and bind the same DNA response elements.