Steroid hormones influence the transcription of a large number of genes by virtue of their
interaction with intracellular receptors, which are modular proteins composed of a ligand
binding domain, a DNA binding domain, and several transactivation functions distributed
along the molecule. The DNA binding domain is organized around two zinc ions and allows
the receptors to bind as homodimers to palindromic DNA sequences, the hormone
responsive elements (HRE), in such a way that each homodimer contacts one half of the …