Liver X Receptor Beta (LXRb)

Liver X receptor beta (LXR-β) is a member of the nuclear receptor family of transcription factors. The LX receptors (LXRs) were originally identified as orphan members of the nuclear receptor superfamily because their ligands were unknown. Like other receptors in the family, LXRs heterodimerize with retinoid X receptor and bind to specific response elements (LXREs) characterized by direct repeats separated by 4 nucleotides. Two genes, alpha (LXRA) and beta, are known to encode LXR proteins. Shinar et al. (1994) determined that NER encodes a polypeptide of 461 amino acids and contains both the DNA-binding and ligand-binding domains seen in other nuclear receptors. A single 2.3-kb transcript was seen in all cells and tissues tested.