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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Sep 3.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2007 Nov 18;14(12):1150–1156. doi: 10.1038/nsmb1316

Figure 7.

Figure 7

Model for the integration of the p38 MAPK signaling pathway with Mef2-dependent recruitment of the Ash2L complex to muscle-specific promoters. Before activation of p38, MyoD and E47 (MD/E) cooperate with Mef 2d dimers (homo- or heterodimers) to establish a transcriptionally poised promoter through recruitment of the acetyltransferase p300 and Pol II. This leads to acetylation of nucleosomes on histone H4 within the promoter. As differentiation proceeds, cell-cell contact activates the membrane-bound receptor Cdo, leading to p38 MAPK activation via the scaffold protein JLP and the MKK6 kinase36. Once activated, p38 MAPK phosphorylates Mef 2d, leading to targeting of the Ash2L methyltransferase complex to muscle-specific promoters. The methyltransferase complex then establishes the epigenetic H3K4me3 mark required for abundant expression of developmentally regulated genes.