The interaction site for tamoxifen aziridine with the bovine estrogen receptor

Calf uterine estrogen receptor was covalently labeled with [3H]tamoxifen aziridine during affinity chromatography purification. After carboxymethylation, affinity labeled receptor was digested with trypsin under limit conditions and the labeled peptides were fractionated by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography into one major and two minor components. Sequence analysis of the dominant labeled fragment indicated the facile cleavage of label during Edman degradation but identified two peptides, both derived from the extreme carboxyl terminus of the steroid-binding domain. The 17 residues of one peptide were fully conserved in all estrogen receptors. This fragment contained five nucleophilic amino acids and was considered as the more favored interaction site for tamoxifen aziridine. A corresponding region of the glucocorticoid receptor has recently been identified as one of three major contact sites for glucocorticoids (Carlstedt-Duke, J., Strömstedt, P.-E., Persson, B., Cederlund, E., Gustafsson, J.-A., and Jörnvall, H. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 6842-6846). A comparison of amino acid physical characteristics in the hormone-binding domains of human estrogen and glucocorticoid receptors demonstrated an excellent structural correlation between the two regions and delineated elements in the estrogen receptor which may be directly involved in estradiol binding.