Thyroid hormones promote transcriptional activation of the nuclear gene coding for mitochondrial β-F1ATPase in rat liver

Thyroid hormones acutely regulate gene expression of the β-catalytic subunit of the mitochondrial F1-ATPase complex in the liver of hypothyroid rat neonates at either a transcriptional and/or post-transcriptional level [(1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 9090-9097]. Administration at birth of various thyroid hormone doses to hypothyroid newborn rats promote a rapid (1 h) increase in liver steady-state amounts of both β-F1-ATPase protein and mRNA. Induction of the β-F1-ATPase mRNA is coincident with an elevation in gene transcription detected using nascent RNA chains synthesized by isolated nuclei. These results suggest that thyroid hormones induction of postnatal mitochondrial differentiation in the liver of hypothyroid rat neonates is mostly triggered by transcriptional regulation of β-F1-ATPase gene.