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Pitx2 is an upstream activator of extraocular myogenesis and survival.

ABSTRACT: The transcription factors required to initiate myogenesis in branchial arch- and somite-derived muscles are known, but the comparable upstream factors required during extraocular muscle development have not been identified. We show Pax7 is dispensable for extraocular muscle formation, whereas Pitx2 is cell-autonomously required to prevent apoptosis of the extraocular muscle primordia. The survival requirement for Pitx2 is stage-dependent and ends following stable activation of genes for the muscle regulatory factors (e.g. Myf5, MyoD), which is reduced in the absence of Pitx2. Further, PITX2 binds and activates transcription of the Myf5 and MyoD promoters, indicating these genes are direct targets. Collectively, these data demonstrate that PITX2 is required at several steps in the development of extraocular muscles, acting first as an anti-apoptotic factor in pre-myogenic mesoderm, and subsequently to activate the myogenic program in these cells. Thus, Pitx2 is the first demonstrated upstream activator of myogenesis in the extraocular muscles.

SUBMITTER: Zacharias AL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3019256 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Pitx2 is an upstream activator of extraocular myogenesis and survival.

Zacharias Amanda L AL Lewandoski Mark M Rudnicki Michael A MA Gage Philip J PJ

Developmental biology 20101028 2

The transcription factors required to initiate myogenesis in branchial arch- and somite-derived muscles are known, but the comparable upstream factors required during extraocular muscle development have not been identified. We show Pax7 is dispensable for extraocular muscle formation, whereas Pitx2 is cell-autonomously required to prevent apoptosis of the extraocular muscle primordia. The survival requirement for Pitx2 is stage-dependent and ends following stable activation of genes for the musc ...[more]

PMID: 21035439

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Project description:The proteasome inhibitor MG132 had been shown to prevent galactose induction of the S. cerevisiae GAL1 gene, demonstrating that ubiquitin proteasome-dependent degradation of transcription factors plays an important role in the regulation of gene expression. The deletion of the gene encoding the F-box protein Mdm30 had been reported to stabilize the transcriptional activator Gal4 under inducing conditions and to lead to defects in galactose utilization, suggesting that recycling of Gal4 is required for its function. Subsequently, however, it was argued that Gal4 remains stably bound to the enhancer under inducing conditions, suggesting that proteolytic turnover of Gal4 might not be required for its function. We have performed an alanine-scanning mutagenesis of ubiquitin and isolated a galactose utilization-defective ubiquitin mutant. We have used it for an unbiased suppressor screen and identified the inhibitor Gal80 as a suppressor of the transcriptional defects of the ubiquitin mutant, indicating that the protein degradation of the inhibitor Gal80, and not of the activator Gal4, is required for galactose induction of the GAL genes. We also show that in the absence of Gal80, Mdm30 is not required for Gal4 function, strongly supporting this hypothesis. Furthermore, we have found that Mediator controls the galactose-induced protein degradation of Gal80, which places Mediator genetically upstream of the activator Gal4. Mediator had originally been isolated by its ability to respond to transcriptional activators, and here we have discovered a leading role for Mediator in the process of transcription. The protein kinase Snf1 senses the inducing conditions and transduces the signal to Mediator, which initiates the degradation of the inhibitor Gal80 with the help of the E3 ubiquitin ligase SCF(Mdm30). The ability of Mediator to control the protein degradation of transcriptional inhibitors indicates that Mediator is actually able to direct its own recruitment to gene promoters.

Dataset Information

Pitx2 is an upstream activator of extraocular myogenesis and survival.

Publications

Pitx2 is an upstream activator of extraocular myogenesis and survival.

Similar Datasets

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