Transcriptional regulation by nuclear corepressors and PGC-1 α: Implications for mitochondrial quality control and insulin sensitivity

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (ppars) and estrogen-related receptor (errα) are ligand-activated nuclear receptors that coordinately regulate gene expression. recent evidence suggests that nuclear corepressors,ncor,rip140,and smrt,repress nuclear receptors-mediated transcriptional activity on specific promoters,and thus regulate insulin sensitivity,adipogenesis,mitochondrial number,and activity in vivo. moreover,the coactivator pgc-1α that increases mitochondrial biogenesis during exercise and calorie restriction directly regulates autophagy in skeletal muscle and mitophagy in the pathogenesis of parkinson's disease. in this paper,we discuss the pgc-1α's novel role in mitochondrial quality control and the role of nuclear corepressors in regulating insulin sensitivity and interacting with pgc-1α. © 2012 zhengtang qi and shuzhe ding.