The human testicular receptor 2 (TR2), a member of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily, has no identified ligand yet. Previous evidence demonstrated that a 63 bp DNA fragment, named the promoter activating cis-element (PACE), has been identified as a positive regulatory region in the 5' promoter region of the human TR2 gene. In the present report, the human nuclear factor 1-A (NF1-A) was identified as a transcriptional activator to recognize the center of the PACE, called the PACE-C. NF1-A could bind to the 18 bp PACE-C region, and enhance about 13- to 17-fold of the luciferase reporter gene activity via the PACE-C in dose-dependent and orientation-independent manners. This transcriptional activation was further confirmed by real-time RT-PCR assay. In conclusion, our results indicated that NF1-A transcription factor plays an important role in the transcriptional activation of the TR2 gene expression via the PACE-C in the minimal promoter region. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.