Expression of transcriptor factors MyoD, Myf5, myogenin and MRF4 forms the basis of myogenesis. In Acrania, Pisces and Amphibia, as in Aves, myogenesis is initiated by MyoD. In Mammalia expression of Myf5 initiates myogenesis. Signal proteins Wnt and Shh induce the expression of genes encoding for MyoD or Myf5. In fishes and amphibians expression of MyoD starts in non-segmented mesoderm and the...

MyoD is a critical myogenic factor induced rapidly upon activation of quiescent satellite cells, and required for their differentiation during muscle regeneration. One of the two enhancers of MyoD, the distal regulatory region, is essential for MyoD expression in postnatal muscle. This enhancer contains a functional divergent serum response factor (SRF)-binding CArG element required for MyoD ex...

Ubiquitin ligase Atrogin1/Muscle Atrophy F-box (MAFbx) up-regulation is required for skeletal muscle atrophy but substrates and function during the atrophic process are poorly known. The transcription factor MyoD controls myogenic stem cell function and differentiation, and seems necessary to maintain the differentiated phenotype of adult fast skeletal muscle fibres. We previously showed that M...

MyoD and myogenin (Myog) recognize sets of distinct but overlapping target genes and play different roles in skeletal muscle differentiation. MyoD is sufficient for near-full expression of early targets, while Myog can only partially enhance expression of MyoD-initiated late muscle genes. However, the way in which Myog enhances the expression of MyoD-initiated late muscle genes remains unclear....

Muscle regeneration is a coordinated process that involves proliferation and differentiation of muscle progenitor cells. Activation of MyoD is a key event in myogenic differentiation, which is regulated by p38 mitogen‑activated protein kinases (MAPK). In a screen of natural compounds for the enhancement of MyoD activity, dehydrocorydaline (DHC) from the Corydalis tuber was identified. Treatment...

Acetylation is emerging as a posttranslational modification of nuclear proteins that is essential to the regulation of transcription and that modifies transcription factor affinity for binding sites on DNA, stability, and/or nuclear localization. Here, we present both in vitro and in vivo evidence that acetylation increases the affinity of myogenic factor MyoD for acetyltransferases CBP and p30...

Recent findings implicate alternate core promoter recognition complexes in regulating cellular differentiation. Here we report a spatial segregation of the alternative core factor TAF3, but not canonical TFIID subunits, away from the nuclear periphery, where the key myogenic gene MyoD is preferentially localized in myoblasts. This segregation is correlated with the differential occupancy of TAF...

The myogenic basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) genes - MyoD, Myf5, myogenin and MRF4 - exhibit distinct, but overlapping expression patterns during development of the skeletal muscle lineage and loss-of-function mutations in these genes result in different effects on muscle development. MyoD and Myf5 have been shown to act early in the myogenic lineage to establish myoblast identity, whereas myogen...

Classical ligand-activated nuclear receptors (e.g. thyroid hormone receptor, retinoic acid receptor), orphan nuclear receptors (e.g. Rev-erbAalpha/beta), Mad/Max bHLH (basic helix loop helix)-LZ proteins, and oncoproteins, PLZF and LAZ3/BCL6, bind DNA and silence transcription by recruiting a repressor complex that contains N-CoR (nuclear receptor corepressor)/SMRT (silencing mediator of retino...