A group of transcriptional cofactors referred to as corepressors (CoRs) were recently shown to play a central role in basal silencing of genes that contain positive triiodothyronine (T3) response elements. In a reciprocal manner, negatively regulated genes are stimulated by unliganded thyroid hormone receptor (TR) and repressed upon the addition of T3. We used a TR mutant, called P214R, which fails to interact with CoRs, to examine whether CoRs also play a role in the control of genes that are negatively regulated in response to T3. In studies of three negatively regulated genes (the pituitary thyroid-stimulating hormone ␣-subunit [TSH␣], TSH, and hypothalamic thyrotropin-releasing hormone [TRH] genes), stimulation of basal promoter activity by unliganded TR was impaired by introducing the P214R CoR mutation. Coexpression of each of the CoRs SMRT (silencing mediator for retinoid receptors and TRs) and NCoR (nuclear receptor CoR) enhanced basal stimulation of the negatively regulated promoters in a TR-dependent manner, but this effect was not seen with the P214R TR mutant. The mechanism of CoR effects on negatively regulated promoters was explored further with a series of GAL4-TR chimeric receptors and mutants that allowed TR effects to be assessed independently of receptor interactions with DNA. These experiments revealed that, like the negative regulation of genes by wild-type TR, basal activation occurred with GAL4-TR, but not with the GAL4-P214R mutant, and was reversed by the addition of T3. These results suggest that TR interactions with negatively regulated genes may be driven through protein-protein interactions. We conclude that a subset of negatively regulated genes are controlled by a novel mechanism that involves TR-mediated recruitment and basal activation by SMRT and NCoR. Addition of T3 reverses basal activation, perhaps by dissociation of CoRs.Thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) function as transcription factors to increase or decrease levels of gene expression. In the unliganded state, TRs and retinoic acid receptors can suppress or silence the basal activity of promoters that contain positively regulated hormone response elements (2, 6, 12). The addition of ligand reverses gene silencing and induces strong stimulation of these genes. Recently, nuclear corepressors (CoRs), termed NCoR (nuclear receptor CoR) (22, 25) and SMRT (silencing mediator for retinoid receptors and TRs) (9), were identified and were shown to mediate ligand-independent repression. The CoRs interact with the ligand binding domain (LBD) of nuclear receptors, and several mutations in the CoR box at the amino-terminal end of the LBD have been shown to disrupt interactions with CoRs (9, 22, 25).Although most research in the thyroid hormone action field has involved pathways of positive regulation by triiodothyronine (T3), it has been estimated that nearly equal numbers of genes are repressed in response to T3 in vivo (34). However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for TR-mediated negative regulation remain poorly defined. It i...