Mutations of the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor that cause a constitutive activation of the thyroid gland cells have been discovered recently.

These effects are mediated by specific nuclear receptor proteins that are members of the steroid and thyroid hormone receptor superfamily of transcriptional regulators.

T3 could then bind to the thyroid hormone receptor in these neurons and affect the production of thyrotropin-releasing hormone, thereby regulating thyroid hormone production.

The hormone receptor without ligand binding interacts with heat shock proteins and prevents the transcription of targeted genes.

It examined a hormone receptor that had evolved from an ancestral protein that was able to bind two hormones to a new protein that was specific for a single hormone.