Positive and negative regulatory DNA elements including a CCArGG box are involved in the cell type-specific expression of the human muscle dystrophin gene.

The muscle-specific promoter of the dystrophin gene is active in skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscles and is specifically stimulated during differentiation of myoblasts into multinucleated myotubes. An 850-base pair (bp) DNA fragment upstream from the cap site is able to confer a partial muscle specificity to a reporter gene. The region between -850 and -140 bp includes nonspecific negative and positive regulatory sequences. A continuous stretch of 140 bp upstream from the cap site exhibits a striking conservation between rodents and human (93% homology) and still retains muscle preference of expression. It contains two putative binding sites for factors involved in regulation of other muscle-specific genes, a CCArGG box and an E box. This latter element, however, is unable to confer the ability to be transactivated by MyoD1 to the dystrophin promoter. The -140-bp promoter fragment exhibits antagonist effects contributed by one inhibiting sequence (nucleotide -140/-96), active in all cell types, and one activating region, from nucleotide -96 to the cap site, sufficient to confer a muscle preference of expression, in which the CCArGG box seems to play a major role.     

Tumor necrosis factor inhibits human myogenesis in vitro.

We examined the effects of human recombinant tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) on human primary myoblasts. When added to proliferating myoblasts, TNF inhibited the expression of alpha-cardiac actin, a muscle-specific gene whose expression is observed at low levels in human myoblasts. TNF also inhibited muscle differentiation as measured by several parameters, including cell fusion and the expression of other muscle-specific genes, such as alpha-skeletal actin and myosin heavy chain. Muscle cells were sensitive to TNF in a narrow temporal window of differentiation. Northern (RNA) blot and immunofluorescence analyses revealed that human muscle gene expression became unresponsive to TNF coincident with myoblast differentiation. When TNF was added to differentiated myotubes, there was no effect on muscle gene expression. In contrast, TNF-inducible mRNAs such as interferon beta-2 still responded, suggesting that the signal mediated by TNF binding to its receptor had no effect on muscle-specific genes after differentiation.     

Multiple regulatory elements contribute differentially to muscle creatine kinase enhancer activity in skeletal and cardiac muscle.

We have used transient transfections in MM14 skeletal muscle cells, newborn rat primary ventricular myocardiocytes, and nonmuscle cells to characterize regulatory elements of the mouse muscle creatine kinase (MCK) gene. Deletion analysis of MCK 5'-flanking sequence reveals a striated muscle-specific, positive regulatory region between -1256 and -1020. A 206-bp fragment from this region acts as a skeletal muscle enhancer and confers orientation-dependent activity in myocardiocytes. A 110-bp enhancer subfragment confers high-level expression in skeletal myocytes but is inactive in myocardiocytes, indicating that skeletal and cardiac muscle MCK regulatory sites are distinguishable. To further delineate muscle regulatory sequences, we tested six sites within the MCK enhancer for their functional importance. Mutations at five sites decrease expression in skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and nonmuscle cells. Mutations at two of these sites, Left E box and MEF2, cause similar decreases in all three cell types. Mutations at three sites have larger effects in muscle than nonmuscle cells; an A/T-rich site mutation has a pronounced effect in both striated muscle types, mutations at the MEF1 (Right E-box) site are relatively specific to expression in skeletal muscle, and mutations at the CArG site are relatively specific to expression in cardiac muscle. Changes at the AP2 site tend to increase expression in muscle cells but decrease it in nonmuscle cells. In contrast to reports involving cotransfection of 10T1/2 cells with plasmids expressing the myogenic determination factor MyoD, we show that the skeletal myocyte activity of multimerized MEF1 sites is 30-fold lower than that of the 206-bp enhancer. Thus, MyoD binding sites alone are not sufficient for high-level expression in skeletal myocytes containing endogenous levels of MyoD and other myogenic determination factors.     

鸡AChRγ亚基基因远上游增强子样作用依赖生肌因子

先前曾报告鸡ＡＣｈＲγ亚基基因５＇连接区－５３８／－２８８片段（含一对Ｅ盒子）与生肌调节因子（ｍｙｏｇｅｎｉｎ）的相互作用,为进一步观察ＤＮＡ－ｍｙｏｇｅｎｉｎ相互作用对γ基因转录激活功能的影响,利用瞬时表达体系研究了鸡ｎＡＣｈＲγ亚基基因５＇端－５３８／－２８８片段调控机能。ＣＡＴ分析表明：γ基因－５３８／－２８８片段可显著激活ｔｋ启动子在分化的Ｃ２Ｃ１２肌细胞中的转录活性,但不能激活在未分化Ｃ２Ｃ１２肌细胞中的转录活性。这种组织特异性转录激活作用与距离无关,因而是一个典型的增强子;－５３８／－２８８片段的增强子样作用既依赖于两毗邻Ｅ盒子的完整性,又依赖于ｍｙｏｇｅｎｉｎ等生肌调节因子的存在。强化表达ｍｙｏｇｅｎｉｎ可激活ｐＢＬＣＡＴ２－γ（－５３８／－４３３）和ｐＢＬＣＡＴ２－γ（－４３２／－２８８）（各含一个Ｅ盒子）在分化肌细胞中的表达,究竟是克隆片段中的独立Ｅ盒子对这种表达起贡献还是出现在克隆位点附近的反向Ｅ盒子（ＧＴＣＧＡＣ）或ｔｋ启动子中的另一个Ｅ盆子起作用？尚不十分清楚。     

Immunolocalization of muscle and nonmuscle isoforms of actin in myogenic cells and adult skeletal muscle

In vertebrate skeletal muscle, the proliferating myoblasts synthesize nonmuscle isoforms of actin, and the cells begin to express muscle-specific actin isoforms during their myogenic differentiation. To study the distributions of the actin isoforms in myogenic cells and fully differentiated skeletal muscle, we prepared a peptide antibody specific for the skeletal alpha isoform of actin and used this antibody along with an antibody specifically reactive with nonmuscle gamma actin to stain cultured myotubes and adult skeletal myofibrils by double-indirect immunofluorescence. At this level of resolution, no differences in isoform localization were seen: Both muscle and nonmuscle actins were detected in the myotubes and in the striations of mature myofibrils. Myotubes were also double-stained using immunogold electron microscopy, and the isoform distributions were determined quantitatively by counting the two sizes of gold particles that corresponded to labeling with each antibody. A quantitative analysis of immunoreactivity revealed that, although both forms were present in all actin-containing structures, nonmuscle actin was relatively more prevalent along the edges (cortical microfilaments) of the myotubes, whereas the muscle isoform predominated in the interior regions (containing forming myofibrils). Thus, we have found evidence of a heterogeneous distribution of muscle and nonmuscle actin isoforms in differentiating myogenic cells, and we have demonstrated that a nonmuscle actin isoform is a component of the muscle contractile apparatus.     

A dual function activity-dependent,muscle-specific enhancer from rat nicotinic acetylcholine receptor δ-subunit gene

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) mediate communication between nerve and muscle. The expression of these receptors increases dramatically during muscle development when myoblasts are fusing into multinucleated myotubes. The molecular mechanisms mediating this muscle developmental stage specific expression are not well understood. We report here the identification of nAChR δ-subunit promoter DNA sequences that differentially interact with nuclear proteins isolated from myoblasts, myotubes, and nonmuscle cells. The functional role these sequences play in mediating muscle-specific expression was explored using mutagenesis and enhancer assays. These studies resulted in the identification of a 47-bp muscle-specific enhancer that mediates increased expression of the nAChR δ-submit gene during myotube formation. This enhancer contains an E-box and an element with similarity to the SV40 core enhancer (SVCE). Point mutations throughout this 47-bp enhancer showed that the E-box and the SVCE sequence are both necessary for conferring muscle-specific expression onto a heterologous promoter. Interestingly, this same DNA sequence also functions as an activity-dependent enhancer. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A skeletal muscle-specific enhancer regulated by factors binding to E and CArG boxes is present in the promoter of the mouse myosin light-chain 1A gene.

The mouse myosin light-chain 1A (MLC1A) gene, expressed in the atria of the adult heart, is one of the first muscle genes to be activated when skeletal as well as cardiac muscles form in the embryo. It is also transcribed in skeletal muscle cell lines at the onset of differentiation. Transient transfection assays of mouse skeletal muscle cell lines with DNA constructs containing MLC1A promoter fragments fused to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene show that the first 630 bp of the promoter is sufficient to direct expression of the reporter gene during myotube formation. Two E boxes located at bp -76 and -519 are necessary for this regulation. MyoD and myogenin proteins bind to them as heterodimers with E12 protein and, moreover, transactivate them in cotransfection experiments with the MLC1A promoter in nonmuscle cells. Interestingly, the effect of mutating each E box is less striking in primary cultures than in the C2 or Sol8 muscle cell line. A DNA fragment from bp -36 to -597 confers tissue- and stage-specific activity to the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase promoter in both orientations, showing that the skeletal muscle-specific regulation of the MLC1A gene is under the control of a muscle-specific enhancer which extends into the proximal promoter region. At bp -89 is a diverged CArG box, CC(A/T)6AG, which binds the serum response factor (SRF) in myotube nuclear extracts, as does the wild-type sequence, CC(A/T)6GG. Both types of CArG box also bind a novel myotube-enriched complex which has contact points with the AT-rich part of the CArG box and adjacent 3' nucleotides. Mutations within the CArG box distinguish between the binding of this complex and binding of SRF; only SRF binding is directly involved in the specific regulation of the MLC1A gene in skeletal muscle cell lines.     

Expression of a transfected mouse muscle-creatine kinase gene is induced upon growth factor deprivation of myogenic but not of nonmyogenic cells

To determine whether mitogen-regulated expression of skeletal muscle genes is independent of cell type, muscle and nonmuscle cells were transfected with cloned 5'-flanking sequences of muscle creatine kinase (MCK) fused to a heterologous reporter gene and tested for expression in high and low mitogen culture conditions. Consistent with the behavior of endogenous MCK, a -3300MCK-CAT gene is expressed at high levels in differentiated muscle cells but at low to undetectable levels in proliferating myoblasts and in either mitogen-deprived or stimulated nonmuscle cells of mesodermal, ectodermal, or endodermal origin. A -776MCK-CAT gene behaves similarly with respect to its cell type specificity but it supports only an intermediate expression level in response to mitogen deprivation in skeletal muscle cells. These data suggest that the -3300 to +7 nucleotide region of mouse MCK contains one or more elements which are activable by mitogen deprivation only in myogenic cells.     

Induction of phosphorylation and cell surface redistribution of acetylcholine receptors by phorbol ester and carbamylcholine in cultured chick muscle cells

We have investigated the mechanisms regulating the clustering of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) on the surface of cultured embryonic chick muscle cells. Treatment of these cells with the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), a potent activator of protein kinase C, was found to cause a rapid dispersal of AChR clusters, as monitored by fluorescence microscopy of cells labeled with tetramethylrhodamine-conjugated alpha-bungarotoxin. The loss of AChR clusters was not accompanied by an appreciable change in the amount of AChR on the surface of these cells, as measured by the specific binding of [125I]Bgt. Analysis of the phosphorylation pattern of immunoprecipitable AChR subunits showed that the gamma- and delta-subunits are phosphorylated by endogenous protein kinase activity in the intact muscle cells, and that the delta-subunit displays increased phosphorylation in response to TPA. Structural analogues of TPA which do not stimulate protein kinase C have no effect on AChR surface topography or phosphorylation. Exposure of chick myotubes to the cholinergic agonist carbamylcholine was found to cause a dispersal of AChR clusters with a time course similar to that of TPA. Like TPA, carbamylcholine enhances the phosphorylation of the delta-subunit of AChR. The carbamylcholine-induced redistribution and phosphorylation of AChR is blocked by the nicotinic AChR antagonist d-tubocurarine. TPA and carbamylcholine have no effect on cell morphology during the time-course of these experiments. These findings indicate that cell surface topography of AChR may be regulated by phosphorylation of its subunits and suggest a mechanism for dispersal of AChR clusters by agonist activation.