Fig. 1

Androgen Receptor Structure. a. The AR gene is located on the X chromosome at position Xq11-Xq12. It is composed of eight exons, which encode for four regions: N-terminal domain (NTD), DNA binding domain (DBD), the hinge region and the ligand binding domain (LBD). b. Several cryptic exons (CE) as well as exon 9 are involved in the formation of several AR splice variants (AR-Vs) which lack the AR ligand binding domain. Four of these AR-Vs have been shown to possess constitutive activity (i.e., AR-V3, AR-V4, AR-V7, and AR-V12)