RIP140 is a corepressor for nuclear receptors that regulates energy expenditure in adipose tissue by suppressing the expression of clusters of metabolic genes involved in glucose and lipid metabolism. The gene encoding RIP140/Nrip1 contains only one coding exon but has multiple promoters and 5 non-coding exons that are subject to alternative splicing. In adipocytes we have defined a promoter, referred to as P2, that is preferentially utilized and activated during adipogenesis. Expression studies and chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments indicate that estrogen-related receptor ␣ (ERR␣), the level of which increases during adipogenesis in parallel with RIP140, stimulates transcription from the P2 promoter. Further analysis indicates that ERR␣ is capable of activating RIP140 gene transcription by two mechanisms, directly by binding to an estrogen receptor element/ERR element at ؊650/؊633 and indirectly through Sp1 binding sites in the proximal promoter. Thus, the up-regulation of RIP140 by ERR␣ during adipogenesis may provide an inhibitory feedback mechanism to control the expression of many nuclear receptor target genes.Adipogenesis is regulated by the coordinated expression of transcription factors that control the formation and function of white adipose tissue as a fat storage depot. The identification of many of these transcription factors has relied upon the analysis of preadipocyte cell lines, notably 3T3-L1, that can be induced to undergo differentiation upon exposure to a number of hormone signals, namely glucocorticoid, insulin, and inducers of cAMP. This leads to the activation of a cascade of transcription factors including CCAAT enhancer-binding protein , CCAAT enhancer-binding protein ␦, and SREBP1c that then induce the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor ␥ and CCAAT enhancer-binding protein ␣ and the formation of adipocytes (1-5). Many other transcription factors, such as Krupple-like factor 5 and E2F1, also facilitate adipogenesis by promoting expression of peroxisome proliferatoractivated receptor ␥, whereas some, such as E2F4 and GATA2/3 that are inhibitory, are down-regulated during adipogenesis (6 -9). The importance of these transcription factors has been confirmed by the analysis of mouse gene knockouts, but CCAAT enhancer-binding protein ␣ and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor ␥2 appear to play a crucial role, with the latter often regarded as a master regulator of adipogenesis (10 -12).The function of adipose tissue in the control of fat storage and utilization also depends on the transcriptional control of networks of genes. Among the many transcription factors that control metabolic gene networks are nuclear receptors including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors, thyroid hormone receptors, and estrogen-related receptors (ERRs) 2 (11-17). The ability of nuclear receptors to regulate the expression of genes involved in triglyceride synthesis or fatty acid oxidation is mediated by coactivators and corepressors. Among these are the PGC-1 coactivators ...