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Glucocorticoid receptor protein stimulates transcription initiation within murine mammary tumor virus (MTV) DNA sequences in vivo, and interacts selectively with MTV DNA in vitro. We mapped and compared five regions of MTV DNA that are bound specifically by purified receptor; one resides upstream of the transcription start site, and the others are distributed within transcribed sequences between 4 and 8 kb from the initiation site. Each region contains at least two strong binding sites for receptor, which itself appears to be a tetramer of 94,000 dalton hormone-binding subunits. Three of the five binding regions contain nine nuclease footprints that lack extensive homology, although a family of related octanucleotides can be discerned. Receptor interacts with the different regions with similar efficiencies, suggesting that receptor affinity for upstream and internal regions may differ by less than one order of magnitude …