The  isoform of thyroid hormone receptor (TR-) has a key role in the feedback regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (H-P-T) axis. The mechanism of trans-repression of the hypothalamic thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) and pituitary thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) subunit genes, however, remains poorly understood. A number of distinct mechanisms for TR--mediated negative regulation by thyroid hormone have been proposed, including those that require and do not require DNA binding. To clarify the importance of DNA binding in negative regulation, we constructed a DNA-binding mutant of TR- in which two amino acids within the P box were altered (GSG for EGG) to resemble that found in the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). We termed this mutant GS125, and as expected, it displayed low binding affinities for positive and negative thyroid hormone-response element (pTRE and nTRE, respectively) in gel-mobility shift assays. In transient transfection assays, the GS125 mutant abolished transactivation on three classic pTREs (DR؉4, LAP, and PAL) and all negatively regulated promoters in the H-P-T axis (TRH, TSH-, and TSH-␣). However, GS125 TR- bound to a composite TR/GR-response element and was fully functional on this hybrid TR/GR-response element. Moreover, the GS125 TR- mutant displayed normal interactions with transcriptional cofactors in mammalian twohybrid assays. These data do not support a DNA-binding independent mechanism for thyroid hormone negative regulation in the H-P-T axis.The synthesis and secretion of thyroid hormones are exquisitely regulated by a negative feedback system that involves the hypothalamus, pituitary, and thyroid gland (the hypothalamicpituitary-thyroid axis: H-P-T axis). 1 The synthesis of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), produced in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, and the ␣ and  subunits of thyrotropin (thyroid-stimulating hormone; TSH) in the anterior lobe of the pituitary is inhibited at the transcriptional level by thyroid hormone (T 3 ) (1-4). Negative regulation of gene expression by T 3 is an integral part of the function in the H-P-T axis, and these effects are mediated by the  isoform of the thyroid hormone receptors (TR-). Of the  isoforms, TR-2 is quantitatively and functionally more important than TR-1 in regulating the hypothalamus and pituitary (5-8). The molecular mechanisms responsible for TR-mediated negative regulation of target genes are not well understood.In the traditional model of TR action, TR regulates gene expression by binding to specific thyroid hormone-response elements (TRE) on target genes. A number of artificial and natural positive thyroid hormone-response elements (pTREs) have been described, and they can be classified based on the half-site arrangement in the element: DRϩ4, PAL, and LAP (LYS) (9 -11). On target genes negatively regulated by T 3 , response elements (nTREs) have been described in the TRH and TSH- subunit genes (12-17). In these nTREs, TR bound as a monomer to widely spaced half-sites or in the case of...