Genome-wide coexpression of steroid receptors in the mouse brain: Identifying signaling pathways and functionally coordinated regions

Steroid receptors are pleiotropic transcription factors that coordinate adaptation to different physiological states. An important target organ is the brain, but even though their effects are well studied in specific regions, brain-wide steroid receptor targets and mediators remain largely unknown due to the complexity of the brain. Here, we tested the idea that novel aspects of steroid action can be identified through spatial correlation of steroid receptors with genome-wide mRNA expression across different regions in the mouse brain. First, we observed significant coexpression of six nuclear receptors (NRs) [androgen receptor (Ar), estrogen receptor alpha (Esr1), estrogen receptor beta (Esr2), glucocorticoid receptor (Gr), mineralocorticoid receptor (Mr), and progesterone recep