Patent ID: 7501487

Claim:
A purified retinoid receptor characterized by: (1) being responsive to the presence of retinoid ligand(s) to regulate the transcription of associated gene(s); (2) being a member of the steroid/thyroid hormone superfamily of receptors having an N-terminal domain, a DNA binding domain and a C-terminal domain, wherein: (i) said N-terminal domain has at least 36% amino acid identity with amino acid residues 1-140 of Sequence ID No. 4; and (ii) said DNA binding domain has about 66 amino acids with 9 Cys residues, and has: (a) at least 92% amino acid identity with the DNA binding domain of mRXR-alpha defined by residues 140-205 of Sequence ID No. 4, (b) less than about 65% amino acid identity with the DNA binding domain of hRAR-alpha, (c) less than about 55% amino acid identity with the DNA binding domain of hTR-beta, and (d) less than about 55% amino acid identity with the DNA binding domain of hGR; (3) not including the amino acid sequence set forth in Sequence ID No. 8.