BioProject

The transcription factor MyoD can coax na?e fibroblasts or otherwise committed cells to adopt the skeletal muscle phenotype by activating the muscle gene expression program. More...

The transcription factor MyoD can coax na?e fibroblasts or otherwise committed cells to adopt the skeletal muscle phenotype by activating the muscle gene expression program. Activation of muscle gene expression occurs in quantal steps with not all the target genes of MyoD being activated at the same time. Some genes are induced in the initial phases, others at later stages despite the fact that MyoD is present throughout the differentiation process. MyoD is post-translationally modified by phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and acetylation. Here, we have employed a model system in which MyoD and its non-acetylatable version were inducibly expressed in mouse embryonic fibroblasts derived from mice to investigate how MyoD acetylation may contribute to differential gene activation. Keywords: Time-Series Overall design: Mouse embryos fibroblasts (MEFs) obtained from MyoD-/-/Myf5-/- animals will be transduced with retroviruses expressing a estrogen receptor hormone binding domain fused to either mouse MyoD wild type (ER-MyoD wt) or MyoD bearing three point mutations at lysine residues 99, 102, and 104 that render it no longer acetylatable ( ER-MyoD RRR). A retrovirus without the ER-MyoD insert was also employed as negative control.

Aim 2. We will compare genome-wide expression profiling of MEFs transduced with either ER-MyoD wt or ER-MyoD RRR cultured in the presence of a medium that promotes skeletal muscle differentiation (DM) supplemented with beta-estradiol for 0, 6, 12, and 24 hours, respectively. Less...