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Several reports have appeared recently which contradict our earlier findings on the identity and characterization of chick progesterone receptor. Puri et al. (Puri, R. K., Grandics, P., Dougherty, J. J., and Toft, D. O. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 10831-10837) have isolated a protein with a molecular weight of Mr approximately 88,000 and have reported that this protein is the "nontransformed" molybdate-stabilized receptor. Because of this discrepancy from our own work, we have repeated their methods and obtained purified samples of this protein. In this paper we show that the Mr = 88,000 +/- 2,000 protein is not a receptor but is apparently an artifact of the use of particular steroid affinity resins. Evidence presented to show that this protein is not the authentic receptor include: 1) it is obtained from affinity resins in 10-fold molar excess over the mass of authentic receptor; 2) its tryptic map does not resemble either authentic receptor subunit; 3) it can be resolved from authentic hormone-binding receptors on DEAE-Sephadex A-25 chromatography; 4) the protein does not bind progesterone; and finally 5) its elution from affinity matrices is not biospecific for progesterone and can even be eluted in equivalent yields with buffer alone. We conclude that the Mr = 88,000 protein is not a progesterone-binding protein.

Chick oviduct progesterone-receptor proteins were treated in cytosol with the reversible cross-linking reagent methyl 4-mercaptobutyrimidate. The product of the reaction was a 7S complex that could be detected and recovered after sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation in 0.3M-KCl. The extent of the reaction was dependent on the concentration of methyl 4-mercaptobutyrimidate and independent of the presence of bound hormone, since unlabelled receptors could also be cross-linked. The cross-linking reaction required conditions in which the cytosol 6S complex was preserved. A Stokes radius of 7.3 nm was determined by gel filtration in Agarose A-1.5 m in 0.3 M-KCl. The sedimentation coefficient, which was also determined in 0.3 M-KCl, allowed us to calculate a mol. wt. of 228,000. We were also able to cross-link partially purified receptor forms isolated by using an Agarose A-15 m column. On reduction with beta-mercaptoethanol the complex broke down to 4S monomers that were identified by DEAE-cellulose and phosphocellulose chromatography, adsorption on DNA-cellulose and gel filtration in an Agarose A-1.5 m column. In most cases, A and B receptor proteins were released in equivalent amounts, implying that the cross-linked form was an A-B complex.

Chick progesterone receptor subunits A and B have been photoaffinity-labeled using [3H]R5020 ([17 alpha-methyl-3H]17,21-dimethyl-19-nor-pregn-4,9-diene-3,20-dione) by a modification of the procedures previously reported by our laboratory (Dure, L. S., IV, Schrader, W. T., and O'Malley, B. W. (1980) Nature (Lond.) 283, 784-786). [3H]R5020 binds to the same receptor sites as authentic progesterone, and has an apparent Kdiss of 2.0 nM. Use of a CuSO4 filter raised the coupling efficiency to 5% and labeled exclusively the receptor proteins. Smaller labeled macromolecules were found to be proteolytic fragments of receptors. The protease(s) could not be inhibited by any of the commonly used protease inhibitors. However, the proteolytic activity was completely removed by passage of crude receptor preparations through phosphocellulose columns. Receptor preparations, photoaffinity-labeled after this procedure, showed exclusively one radioactive band at Mr = 79,000 (subunit A) or Mr = 108,000 (subunit B) with no detectable side-reaction products. Labeled receptors A and B were digested with Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease to yield smaller [3H]R5020-protein fragments derived from both. Molecular weight estimates (Mr = 9,500) and apparent isoelectric points indicate similarities of these regions of both A and B. The photoaffinity protocol described here thus provides a method for study of the hormone-binding domain of progesterone receptors and of receptor proteolysis in crude extracts.

Previous purifications of the progesterone receptor have yielded inadequate amounts of pure protein along with significant amounts of a nonreceptor contaminant. We have taken advantage of the high yield provided by an affinity chromatography method for partial purification and after the incorporation of additional steps, we obtained purified progesterone receptor devoid of detectable contaminants and suitable for chemical analysis. A polyclonal antibody was obtained using the pure receptor as the antigen. The antibody was specific for progesterone-binding receptor. Tissue distribution of cross-reacting material, analyzed by immunoblotting, confirmed the presence of the receptor protein only in the two tissues where progesterone binding has been described in the chick: the oviduct and the bursa of Fabricius. It was absent in receptor-negative tissues such as liver and lung. The receptor was cleaved with cyanogen bromide and trypsin to obtain fragments that were partially sequenced.

Partial proteolytic fragmentation of the two chick oviduct progesterone receptor subunits was used to identify structural features shared by the two proteins. Both subunits can be photoaffinity labeled at their hormone-binding sites (Birnbaumer, M., Schrader, W. T., and O'Malley, B. W. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 1637-1644) using the radioactive steroid [methyl-3H] 17 alpha, 21-dimethyl-19-nor-pregn-4,9-diene-3,20-dione. Native subunits A (Mr = 79,000) and B (Mr = 108,000) were partially purified, photoaffinity-labeled, and then subjected to various mild proteolytic digestions. Labeled fragments were analyzed by fluorography after electrophoresis of the digests under denaturing conditions. Digestion patterns were characteristic for each protease tested. However, fragments from both A and B were indistinguishable for all peptides of less than Mr = 60,000. Time course studies demonstrated the sequential production of progressively smaller discrete fragments in a manner consistent with a precursor-product relationship among them and established the existence of similar structural domains resistant to proteolysis in both proteins. Autoradiographic peptide maps were obtained by 125I-labeling of pure A and B protein isolated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by exhaustive tryptic digestion and two-dimensional separation. These studies revealed that a significant proportion of the smaller A protein differs in its primary sequence from that of the B protein which excludes the possibility of their sharing a precursor-product relationship. We conclude that B and A subunits are separate proteins with common structural features in the native state, but with considerable amino acid sequence differences. The simplest hypothesis consistent with these findings is that B and A are the products of two separate genes which have diverged to give rise to two different but related proteins that fold in such a manner as to be almost indistinguishable by proteolytic attack of their native conformation.

To define the functional domains of the progesterone receptor required for gene regulation, complementary DNA (cDNA) clones encoding the chicken progesterone receptor have been isolated from a chicken oviduct lambda gt11 cDNA expression library. Positive clones expressed antigenic determinants that cross-reacted with six monospecific antibodies derived from two independent sources. A 36-amino acid peptide sequence obtained by microsequencing of purified progesterone receptor was encoded by nucleotide sequences in the longest cDNA clone. Analysis of the amino acid sequence of the progesterone receptor deduced from the cDNA clones revealed a cysteine-rich region that was homologous to a region found in the estrogen and glucocorticoid receptors and to the avian erythroblastosis virus gag-erb-A fusion protein. Northern blot analysis with chicken progesterone receptor cDNA's indicated the existence of at least three messenger RNA species. These messages were found only in oviduct and could be induced by estrogens.