hormone response element
A hormone response element is a specific “address label” written into the DNA. It tells a hormone-bound nuclear receptor exactly where to land on the genome, so that the hormone influences the right genes and not random ones.
Mechanistically, it is a short, defined sequence of DNA bases located near the genes that a hormone controls. When a lipophilic hormone binds its nuclear receptor, the receptor recognizes and attaches to this sequence, then recruits or repels the transcription machinery to increase or decrease that gene's expression. Different hormones have their own characteristic elements — for example, a glucocorticoid response element or an estrogen response element.
Hormone response elements are what make nuclear-receptor signaling specific: the hormone-receptor pair only acts on genes that carry the matching address. This explains how one circulating steroid can produce a tailored set of changes in each tissue, depending on which response-element-bearing genes are accessible in that cell.
The cortisol-bound glucocorticoid receptor binds glucocorticoid response elements upstream of metabolic genes, increasing the liver's output of glucose-producing enzymes.
A nuclear receptor docking at its DNA address to control genes.
Whether a hormone response element turns a gene up or down depends not only on the receptor but also on the coactivator and corepressor proteins the receptor gathers at that site.