Transformation of the estrogen-receptor complex from chick oviduct in 2 steps.

Salt treatment of the cytoplasmic estradiol-receptor complex from chick oviduct induces a strong affinity of the complex for DNA-cellulose and phenyl-sepharose. This process is called activation. Binding to heparin- and lysozyme-sepharose is also observed with the untreated complex. But, the salt treatment, additional binding of the complex to these adsorbents is seen. The increased ability of the complex to bind to polyanions and polycations is destroyed by mild trypsination. The binding to the hydrophobic adsorbent is not affected by this treatment. Neither a change of the sedimentation constant nor of the size of the receptor protein is observed after salt treatment in the cold. After binding of the salt-activated estradiol-receptor complex to DNA-cellulose in the cold, an increase of its sedimentation constant and its size, as measured by density-gradient centrifugation and agarose gel chromatography, resp., becomes apparent. A similar phenomenon is observed after binding to DEAE-cellulose and to some extent after binding to heparin-sepharose. The nuclear complex seems to have the same sedimentation constant as the cytoplasmic complex eluted from DNA-cellulose. The sedimentation constant of the nuclear complex is not changed after DNA-cellulose chromatography. The cytoplasmic progesterone-receptor complex from the same tissue, i.e. the oviduct, does not show any change of size. Thus the well-known process of transformation can now be separated into 2 steps. (1) Activation of the estradiol-receptor complex for its binding to various adsorbents in vitro and probably to its acceptor site(s) in vivo. (2) Increase of receptor size. This second step seems to be a special property of the estradiol-receptor complex. Its physiological significance is unclear.