Regulation of protein function through expression of chimaeric proteins

The hormone-binding domain of steroid receptors can be used to subject heterologous protein functions to hormonal control in cis. Recent studies have established that these regulatory domains constitute a set of up to five different reversible molecular switches for the post-translational regulation of a wide variety of cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins, including kinases. This approach has been applied both in vertebrate cells and in budding yeast.