Retinoic acid receptors (RARs) are hormone-regulated transcription factors that control key aspects of normal differentiation. Aberrant RAR activity may be a causal factor in neoplasia. Human acute promyelocytic leukemia, for example, is tightly linked to chromosomal translocations that fuse novel amino acid sequences (denoted PML, PLZF, and NPM) to the DNA-binding and hormone-binding domains of RAR␣. The resulting chimeric receptors have unique transcriptional properties that may contribute to leukemogenesis. Normal RARs repress gene transcription by associating with ancillary factors denoted corepressors (also referred to as SMRT, N-CoR, TRAC, or RIP13). We report here that the PML-RAR␣ and PLZF-RAR␣ oncoproteins retain the ability of RAR␣ to associate with corepressors, and that this corepressor association correlates with certain aspects of the leukemic phenotype. Unexpectedly, the PLZF moiety itself can interact with SMRT corepressor. This interaction with corepressor is mediated, in part, by a POZ motif within PLZF. Given the presence of POZ motifs in a number of known transcriptional repressors, similar interactions with SMRT may play a role in transcriptional silencing by a variety of both receptor and nonreceptor transcription factors.Retinoids regulate many aspects of vertebrate cell proliferation and differentiation through receptors that function as hormone-regulated transcription factors (1-6). Two major classes of retinoid receptors have been identified: retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and retinoid X receptors (RXRs) (3-6). Both RARs and RXRs bind to specific sites on the DNA, and they can activate or repress expression of adjacent target genes (1-6). Aberrant RARs appear to play a crucial role in human acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) (7-15). In over 95% of all APL patients, specific chromosomal translocations create abnormal RARs by replacing the N terminus of RAR␣ with novel ORFs. The breakpoint in RAR␣ is identical in all cases, whereas the nature of the novel N-terminal sequences can vary. In the common t(15;17) translocation, the RAR␣ N terminus is replaced with an ORF denoted PML (for promyelocytic leukemia) (7-12). Alternatively, t(11;17) and t(5;17) translocations result in chimeric proteins denoted PLZF (promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger)-RAR␣ and NPM (nucleophosmin)-RAR␣, respectively (13-15). Although possessing a number of recognizable structural motifs, including several prevalent in transcription factors, the PML, PLZF, and NPMderived sequences exhibit little structural interrelatedness, and the functions of these proteins in the normal cell are not fully understood (reviewed in refs. 16-18).The near-invariant association of acute promyelocytic leukemia with the expression of chimeric RAR␣ proteins, and the ability of retinoids to drive leukemias bearing the PML-RAR␣ translocation into differentiation and clinical remission (16-18), suggest an active role for these chimeras in conferring the leukemogenic phenotype. Furthermore, ectopic expression of PML-RAR␣ in murine or av...