Construction of the Detection System of Endocrine Disrupters using Yeast Two-Hybrid System with Human Estrogen Receptor ligand Binding Domain and Co-activators

Human Estrogen Receptor Ligand Binding Domain (hER LBD)과 Co-activator로 구성된 효모 Two-Hybrid System을 이용한 내분비계장애물질 검출계의 구축

Endocrine disruptors (EDs) are the chemicals that affect endocrine systems through activation or inhibition of steroid hormone response. It is necessary to have a good system to evaluate rapidly and accurately endocrine-disrupting activities of suspected chemicals and their degradation products. The key targets of EDs are nuclear hormone receptors, which bind to steroid hormones and regulate their gene transcription. We constructed a co-expression system of Gal4p DNA binding domain (DBD)- ligand binding domain of human estrogen receptor $\alpha$ or $\beta$, and Gal4p transactivation domain (TAD)-co-activator AIB-1, SRC-1 or TIF-2 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae with a chromosome-integrated lacZ reporter gene under the control of CYC1 promoter and Gal4p binding site (GAL4 upstream activating sequence, GAL4$_{UAS}$). Expression of this reporter gene was dependent on the presence of estrogen or EDs in the culture medium. We found that the two-hybrid system with combination of the hER$\beta$ LBD and co-activator SRC-1 was most effective in the xenoestrogen-dependent induction of reporter activity. The extent of transcriptional activation by those chemicals correlated with their estrogenic activities measured by other assay systems, indicating that this assay system is efficient and reliable for measuring estrogenic activity. The data in this research demonstrated that the yeast detection system using steroid hormone receptor and co-activator is a useful tool for identifying chemicals that interact with steroid receptors.s.