The mouse homologue of the human receptor-interacting protein 140 (RIP140) was isolated from a mouse embryonic cDNA library in yeast two-hybrid screening experiments by using the ligand binding domain (LBD) of nuclear orphan receptor TR2 as the bait. The receptor-interacting domains of mouse RIP140 were mapped to the regions containing the LXXLL motif (where L is leucine and X is any amino acid), and the RIP140-interacting domain of TR2 was mapped to its C-terminal 10- to 20-amino-acid sequence, a putative activation function 2 (AF-2) region. In a GAL4 reporter system and a reporter driven by the proximal region of the TR2 promoter, RIP140 functioned as a corepressor for both a GAL4 DNA binding domain (BD)-TR2 fusion and the wild-type receptor. When tethered to the BD of GAL4, RIP140 exerted a trans-repressive effect on the GAL4 reporter. In addition, RIP140 suppressed the retinoic acid (RA) receptor-mediated RA induction in a dose-dependent manner. Finally, it was demonstrated that in the presence of RIP140, a cytosolic, green fluorescent protein-tagged TR2 LBD translocated into the nucleus, and TR2 and RIP140 were coimmunoprecipitated from the cell extract, indicating that the interaction between RIP140 and the LBD of TR2 occurred in vivo. The potential biological role of RIP140 in TR2-modulated transcriptional activity is discussed.