We have examined the 5'-flanking region (944 bp) of the human choline acetyltransferase (hChAT) gene for sequences that modulate its transcriptional activity and identified a sequence 5'-TGACCCA-3' which confers c-Jun/c-Fos (AP-1) inducibility of homologous and heterologous promoters. Using transient transfections in neuroblastoma NE-1-115 and COS-1 cells, we show that ligand-activated estrogen receptor (HEGo) represses the transcriptional activation by c-Fos/c-Jun. Testing HEGo mutants in transfection assays reveals that the ligand-binding domain is crucial for this repression, whereas the N-terminal (A/B) region and the DNA-binding domain are not essential. Gel retardation assays show that the hChAT AP-1 recognition sequence binds in vitro baculovirus-produced c-Jun/c-Fos proteins. This binding is inhibited by addition of baculovirus-produced HEGo. In contrast to HEGo, ligand-activated glucocorticoid, androgen, and retinoic acid receptors (RARs) enhance the transcription activation induced by c-Jun/c-Fos. All three types of RARs--RAR alpha, beta, gamma--and RXR alpha are able to stimulate AP-1 activity on the proximal hChAT promoter. Several mechanism possibilities involving protein-protein interaction are discussed to explain the phenomena.