Estrogen-related receptor ␣ (ERR␣) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily and regulates many physiological functions, including mitochondrial biogenesis and lipid metabolism. ERR␣ enhances the transactivation function without endogenous ligand by associating with coactivators such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor ␥ coactivator 1 ␣ and  (PGC-1␣ and -) and members of the steroid receptor coactivator family. However, the molecular mechanism by which the transactivation function of ERR␣ is converted from a repressive state to an active state is poorly understood. Here we used biochemical purification techniques to identify ERR␣-associated proteins in HeLa cells stably expressing ERR␣. Interestingly, we found that double PHD fingers protein DPF2/BAF45d suppressed PGC-1␣-dependent transactivation of ERR␣ by recognizing acetylated histone H3 and associating with HDAC1. DPF2 directly bound to ERR␣ and suppressed the transactivation function of nuclear receptors such as androgen receptor. DPF2 was recruited to ERR target gene promoters in myoblast cells, and knockdown of DPF2 derepressed the level of mRNA expressed by target genes of ERR␣. These results show that DPF2 acts as a nuclear receptor-selective co-repressor for ERR␣ by associating with both acetylated histone H3 and HDAC1.Nuclear receptors (NRs) 3 play pivotal roles during the development of vertebrates and in diverse physiological events in adults (1, 2). NRs constitute a gene superfamily and act as transcription factors. For most members of the NR superfamily, the transcriptional function is dependent on binding of lipophilic ligands such as steroid hormones and fat-soluble vitamins. The other subset of NRs is considered an orphan receptor, as physiologically relevant ligands remain to be identified. Orphan receptors are constitutively active or repressive transcription factors; however, their potency in transcriptional regulation appears to be dependent on cell types and the promoter context (3).For ligand-dependent transcriptional controls by nuclear steroid/vitamin receptors, several distinct classes of transcriptional co-regulators-co-regulator complexes are indispensable in addition to basic transcription machinery to reorganize chromatin state (4). Transcriptional co-regulators for NRs can be divided into two classes in terms of chromatin reorganization (5-7). One class consists of histone-modifying enzymes that reversibly modify the N-terminal tails of histone proteins (8, 9). For example, acetylation and methylation at histone H3K4 and H3K36 are chromatin-activating modifications and support transcriptional activation by NRs (8, 10, 11). In contrast, transcriptional repression by NRs is coupled with inactivating modifications like deacetylation and methylation at histone H3K9 and H3K27. Accordingly, cognate histone modifying enzymes serve as NR co-regulators.The other class of transcriptional co-regulators are chromatin remodeling factors that directly reorganize nucleosomal arrays through ATP hydrolysis (11). Chromatin remod...