scholarly journals A novel transcript of MEF2D promotes myoblast differentiation and its variations associated with growth traits in chicken

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e8351
Author(s):  
Hongjia Ouyang ◽  
Jiao Yu ◽  
Xiaolan Chen ◽  
Zhijun Wang ◽  
Qinghua Nie

Background Development of skeletal muscle is closely related to broiler production traits. The myocyte-specific enhancer binding factor (MEF) 2D gene (MEF2D) and its variant transcripts play important parts in myogenesis. Methods To identify the transcript variants of chicken MEF2D gene and their function, this study cloned chicken MEF2D gene and identified its transcript variants from different tissue samples. The expression levels of different transcripts of MEF2D gene in different tissues and different periods were measured, and their effects on myoblast proliferation and differentiation were investigated. Variations in MEF2D were identified and association analysis with chicken production traits carried out. Results Four novel transcript variants of MEF2D were obtained, all of which contained highly conserved sequences, including MADS-Box and MEF2-Domain functional regions. Transcript MEF2D-V4 was expressed specifically in muscle, and its expression was increased during embryonic muscle development. The MEF2D-V4 could promote differentiation of chicken myoblasts and its expression was regulated by RBFOX2. The single nucleotide polymorphism g.36186C > T generated a TAG stop codon, caused MEF2D-V4 to terminate translation early, and was associated with several growth traits, especially on early body weight. Conclusion We cloned the muscle-specific transcript of MEF2D and preliminarily revealed its role in embryonic muscle development.

1995 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
pp. 1443-1454 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Burchard ◽  
A. Paululat ◽  
U. Hinz ◽  
R. Renkawitz-Pohl

In a search for mutations affecting embryonic muscle development in Drosophila we identified a mutation caused by the insertion of a P-element, which we called not enough muscles (nem). The phenotype of the P-element mutation of the nem gene suggests that it may be required for the development of the somatic musculature and the chordotonal organs of the PNS, while it is not involved in the development of the visceral mesoderm and the dorsal vessel. Mutant embryos are characterized by partial absence of muscles, monitored by immunostainings with mesoderm-specific anti-beta 3 tubulin and anti-myosin heavy chain antibodies. Besides these muscle distortions, defects in the peripheral nervous system were found, indicating a dual function of the nem gene product. Ethyl methane sulfonate-induced alleles for the P-element mutation were created for a detailed analysis. One of these alleles is characterized by unfused myoblasts which express beta 3 tubulin and myosin heavy chain, indicating the state of cell differentiation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingwei Yue ◽  
Xinhua Hou ◽  
Xin Liu ◽  
Ligang Wang ◽  
Hongmei Gao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The development of skeletal muscle during the embryonic stage in pigs is precisely regulated by transcriptional regulation, which depends on chromatin accessibility. However, how chromatin accessibility plays a regulatory role during embryonic skeletal muscle development in pigs has not been reported. To gain insight into the landscape of chromatin accessibility and the associated genome-wide transcriptome during embryonic muscle development, we performed ATAC-seq and RNA-seq on skeletal muscle of pig embryos at 45, 70 and 100 days post coitus (dpc). Results: In total, 21638, 35447 and 60181 unique regions (or peaks) were found across 45 dpc (LW45), 70 dpc (LW70) and 100 dpc (LW100) embryos, respectively. More than 91% of peaks were annotated within -1 kb to 100 bp of transcription start sites (TSSs). First, widespread increases in specific accessible chromatin regions (ACRs) from 45 to 100 dpc embryos suggested that the regulatory mechanisms became increasingly complicated during embryonic development. Second, the findings of integrated ATAC-seq and RNA-seq analyses showed that not only the numbers but also the peak intensities of ACRs could control the expression of associated genes. Finally, motif screening of stage-specific ACRs revealed some transcription factors that regulated muscle development-related genes, such as MyoD, Mef2c, Mef2d and Pax7. Several potential transcriptional repressors, including E2F6, GRHL2, OTX2 and CTCF, were identified among those genes that exhibited different change trends between the ATAC-seq and RNA-seq data. Conclusions: This work indicates that chromatin accessibility plays an important regulatory role in the embryonic muscle development of pigs and regulates the temporal and spatial expression patterns of key genes in muscle development by influencing the binding of transcription factors. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the regulatory dynamics of genes involved in pig embryonic skeletal muscle development.


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