Mediator Complex Subunit 16 (MED16)

Transcriptional regulation by nuclear hormone receptors is thought to involve interactions with putative cofactors that may potentiate receptor function. Fondell et al. (1996) showed that human thyroid hormone receptor (TR)-alpha purified from HeLa cells grown in the presence of thyroid hormone (T3) is associated with a group of distinct nuclear proteins termed thyroid hormone receptor-associated proteins (TRAPs).Using a HeLa cell line, Ito et al. (1999) cloned TRAP95, the gene encoding the 95-kD subunit of the TRAP complex. The presumptive full-length TRAP95 cDNA encodes an 877-amino acid protein that has no obvious motifs other than a short leucine zipper near the N terminus. The TRAP95 cDNA appears to be equivalent to the p96b component of the mouse Mediator.