Transcriptional control and the regulation of endocrine genes

1. Endocrine genes are regulated at a number of levels during their expression. Regulation can occur during transcription, mRNA splicing, mRNA degradation, translation, or post-translational processing of protein precursors. 2. Transcription is controlled by an increasingly well studied and enlarging family of transcription factors that bind to basal control DNA sequences (promoters) and transcriptional activator sequences (enhancers). 3. Steroid receptors act as transcription factors, as do the proteins involved in the gene regulation by cyclic AMP. Parathyroid hormone related protein is typical of many endocrine genes in that it is regulated by multiple agonists including glucocorticoids and hormones activating the cyclic AMP cascade.