Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1993 Sep 1;90(17):8028–8032. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.17.8028

Use of a conditional MyoD transcription factor in studies of MyoD trans-activation and muscle determination.

S M Hollenberg 1, P F Cheng 1, H Weintraub 1
PMCID: PMC47281  PMID: 8396258

Abstract

DNA sequences encoding the hormone-binding domains of several steroid hormone receptors were fused in frame to the MyoD gene. When the gene for this chimeric protein was expressed in NIH 3T3 or 10T1/2 fibroblasts, these cells displayed hormone-dependent induction of myogenesis. Our experiments focused on cell lines expressing estrogen receptor-MyoD chimeras. Induction of these lines in the presence of estradiol and an inhibitor of protein synthesis, cycloheximide, resulted in the activation of the endogenous myogenin gene but did not activate the muscle-specific creatine kinase or cardiac alpha-actin gene. This result suggests that MyoD is not a "direct" activator of these downstream myogenic genes but must first activate myogenin as an intermediary. Once muscle is induced by estrogen receptor-MyoD the muscle phenotype is very stable and does not need the continued presence of estradiol for its maintenance.

Full text

PDF
8028

Images in this article

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Braun T., Bober E., Buschhausen-Denker G., Kohtz S., Grzeschik K. H., Arnold H. H., Kotz S. Differential expression of myogenic determination genes in muscle cells: possible autoactivation by the Myf gene products. EMBO J. 1989 Dec 1;8(12):3617–3625. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb08535.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Braun T., Rudnicki M. A., Arnold H. H., Jaenisch R. Targeted inactivation of the muscle regulatory gene Myf-5 results in abnormal rib development and perinatal death. Cell. 1992 Oct 30;71(3):369–382. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(92)90507-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Buskin J. N., Jaynes J. B., Chamberlain J. S., Hauschka S. D. The mouse muscle creatine kinase cDNA and deduced amino acid sequences: comparison to evolutionarily related enzymes. J Mol Evol. 1985;22(4):334–341. doi: 10.1007/BF02115689. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Davis R. L., Weintraub H., Lassar A. B. Expression of a single transfected cDNA converts fibroblasts to myoblasts. Cell. 1987 Dec 24;51(6):987–1000. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90585-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Edmondson D. G., Cheng T. C., Cserjesi P., Chakraborty T., Olson E. N. Analysis of the myogenin promoter reveals an indirect pathway for positive autoregulation mediated by the muscle-specific enhancer factor MEF-2. Mol Cell Biol. 1992 Sep;12(9):3665–3677. doi: 10.1128/mcb.12.9.3665. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Edmondson D. G., Olson E. N. A gene with homology to the myc similarity region of MyoD1 is expressed during myogenesis and is sufficient to activate the muscle differentiation program. Genes Dev. 1989 May;3(5):628–640. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.5.628. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Endo T., Nadal-Ginard B. Three types of muscle-specific gene expression in fusion-blocked rat skeletal muscle cells: translational control in EGTA-treated cells. Cell. 1987 May 22;49(4):515–526. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90454-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Greene G. L., Gilna P., Waterfield M., Baker A., Hort Y., Shine J. Sequence and expression of human estrogen receptor complementary DNA. Science. 1986 Mar 7;231(4742):1150–1154. doi: 10.1126/science.3753802. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hollenberg S. M., Evans R. M. Multiple and cooperative trans-activation domains of the human glucocorticoid receptor. Cell. 1988 Dec 2;55(5):899–906. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90145-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hollenberg S. M., Weinberger C., Ong E. S., Cerelli G., Oro A., Lebo R., Thompson E. B., Rosenfeld M. G., Evans R. M. Primary structure and expression of a functional human glucocorticoid receptor cDNA. Nature. 1985 Dec 19;318(6047):635–641. doi: 10.1038/318635a0. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Johnston L. A., Tapscott S. J., Eisen H. Sodium butyrate inhibits myogenesis by interfering with the transcriptional activation function of MyoD and myogenin. Mol Cell Biol. 1992 Nov;12(11):5123–5130. doi: 10.1128/mcb.12.11.5123. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kim S. J., Kim K. Y., Tapscott S. J., Winokur T. S., Park K., Fujiki H., Weintraub H., Roberts A. B. Inhibition of protein phosphatases blocks myogenesis by first altering MyoD binding activity. J Biol Chem. 1992 Jul 25;267(21):15140–15145. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Krust A., Green S., Argos P., Kumar V., Walter P., Bornert J. M., Chambon P. The chicken oestrogen receptor sequence: homology with v-erbA and the human oestrogen and glucocorticoid receptors. EMBO J. 1986 May;5(5):891–897. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04300.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lassar A. B., Thayer M. J., Overell R. W., Weintraub H. Transformation by activated ras or fos prevents myogenesis by inhibiting expression of MyoD1. Cell. 1989 Aug 25;58(4):659–667. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90101-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Leader D. P., Gall I., Campbell P. C. The structure of a cDNA clone corresponding to mouse cardiac muscle actin mRNA. Biosci Rep. 1986 Aug;6(8):741–747. doi: 10.1007/BF01116542. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Massagué J., Cheifetz S., Endo T., Nadal-Ginard B. Type beta transforming growth factor is an inhibitor of myogenic differentiation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Nov;83(21):8206–8210. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.21.8206. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Meyuhas O., Klein A. The mouse ribosomal protein L7 gene. Its primary structure and functional analysis of the promoter region. J Biol Chem. 1990 Jul 15;265(20):11465–11473. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Miner J. H., Wold B. Herculin, a fourth member of the MyoD family of myogenic regulatory genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Feb;87(3):1089–1093. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.3.1089. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Olson E. N. MyoD family: a paradigm for development? Genes Dev. 1990 Sep;4(9):1454–1461. doi: 10.1101/gad.4.9.1454. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Picard D., Salser S. J., Yamamoto K. R. A movable and regulable inactivation function within the steroid binding domain of the glucocorticoid receptor. Cell. 1988 Sep 23;54(7):1073–1080. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90122-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rhodes S. J., Konieczny S. F. Identification of MRF4: a new member of the muscle regulatory factor gene family. Genes Dev. 1989 Dec;3(12B):2050–2061. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.12b.2050. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Rudnicki M. A., Braun T., Hinuma S., Jaenisch R. Inactivation of MyoD in mice leads to up-regulation of the myogenic HLH gene Myf-5 and results in apparently normal muscle development. Cell. 1992 Oct 30;71(3):383–390. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(92)90508-a. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Rupp R. A., Weintraub H. Ubiquitous MyoD transcription at the midblastula transition precedes induction-dependent MyoD expression in presumptive mesoderm of X. laevis. Cell. 1991 Jun 14;65(6):927–937. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(91)90545-a. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Samuels H. H., Stanley F., Casanova J. Depletion of L-3,5,3'-triiodothyronine and L-thyroxine in euthyroid calf serum for use in cell culture studies of the action of thyroid hormone. Endocrinology. 1979 Jul;105(1):80–85. doi: 10.1210/endo-105-1-80. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Shaknovich R., Shue G., Kohtz D. S. Conformational activation of a basic helix-loop-helix protein (MyoD1) by the C-terminal region of murine HSP90 (HSP84). Mol Cell Biol. 1992 Nov;12(11):5059–5068. doi: 10.1128/mcb.12.11.5059. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Thayer M. J., Tapscott S. J., Davis R. L., Wright W. E., Lassar A. B., Weintraub H. Positive autoregulation of the myogenic determination gene MyoD1. Cell. 1989 Jul 28;58(2):241–248. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90838-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Thayer M. J., Weintraub H. Activation and repression of myogenesis in somatic cell hybrids: evidence for trans-negative regulation of MyoD in primary fibroblasts. Cell. 1990 Oct 5;63(1):23–32. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90285-m. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Thompson C. C., Weinberger C., Lebo R., Evans R. M. Identification of a novel thyroid hormone receptor expressed in the mammalian central nervous system. Science. 1987 Sep 25;237(4822):1610–1614. doi: 10.1126/science.3629259. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Weintraub H., Davis R., Tapscott S., Thayer M., Krause M., Benezra R., Blackwell T. K., Turner D., Rupp R., Hollenberg S. The myoD gene family: nodal point during specification of the muscle cell lineage. Science. 1991 Feb 15;251(4995):761–766. doi: 10.1126/science.1846704. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Wright W. E., Sassoon D. A., Lin V. K. Myogenin, a factor regulating myogenesis, has a domain homologous to MyoD. Cell. 1989 Feb 24;56(4):607–617. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90583-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES