The chimeric chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) construct, pTRCAT5'-199, containing the TSH receptor (TSHR) minimal promoter, -199 to -39 base pairs (bp), exhibits the thyroid specificity and TSH/cAMP autoregulation evident in TSHR gene expression. The present report shows that a cis-acting element between -189 and -175 bp, which binds thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1), is involved in both activities. The 22 bp between -199 and -178 contains a positive element important for expression of the TSHR minimal promoter in rat FRTL-5 thyroid cells. DNAase I footprinting shows that extracts from functioning FRTL-5, but not non-functioning FRT thyroid or Buffalo rat liver (BRL) cells, protect a region between -189 and -175 bp. The protection is duplicated by TTF-1, and the protected element has only a two-base mismatch from the consensus TTF-1 element identified in the thyroglobulin (TG) and thyroid peroxidase minimal promoters. Gel mobility shift analyses reveal that FRTL-5 thyroid cell nuclear extracts form a specific protein/DNA complex with this region, which is prevented by the TTF-1 binding element from the TG promoter; FRT and BRL cell nuclear extracts do not have TTF-1 and do not form this complex. A role for the TSHR/TTF-1 binding element in thyroid-specific expression of the TSHR gene is evidenced as follows. Overexpression of TTF-1 in FRT or BRL cells, which have no TTF-1, increased the activity of pTRCAT5'-199, but not pTRCAT5'-177, which has no TTF-1 binding element. A nonsense mutation of the TTF-1 binding element eliminated TTF-1-induced activation of TSHR promoter activity in FRT or BRL cells and reduced TSHR promoter activity in FRTL-5 thyroid cells. In contrast, mutation of this element to the TTF-1 consensus sequence of the TG or thyroid peroxidase promoter had no significant influence on TSHR promoter activity. The activity of the TSHR/TTF-1 binding element requires a functioning cAMP response element (CRE). Thus, TTF-1 activity is lost when the CRE site is mutated to a nonfunctional, nonpalindromic sequence; it is, in contrast, maximized when CRE activity is maximized by its mutation to a consensus AP1 element. TTF-1 phosphorylation is important for binding and activity. Thus, binding of TTF-1 to the TSHR/TTF-1 element is phosphatase-sensitive and is increased by treating nuclear extracts with the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A. Overexpression of the catalytic subunit of PKA enhances TTF-1-increased activity of the TSHR minimal promoter.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)