1: Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2003 Jun;3(3):300-8. 

Role of transcription factors in skeletal muscle and the potential for
pharmacological manipulation.

Martin PT.

Department of Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego, School of
Medicine, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0691, USA. pmartin@ucsd.edu

Our understanding of the role of transcription factors in skeletal muscle vastly
exceeds our ability to manipulate this class of proteins for therapeutic
benefit. Transcription factors responsible for controlling the fate, growth,
migration, proliferation, differentiation and regeneration of muscle cells have
been identified, and additional factors involved in these processes continue to
be discovered. These factors are often involved in multiple steps in muscle
differentiation and can have redundant activities. As such, a detailed
understanding of their intermolecular interactions and the gene programs they
control is essential to the rational design of therapeutics. Mutations in
transcription factors cause a number of muscle disorders. Moreover, the
manipulation of transcriptional signals holds the promise of treating muscle
diseases by exploiting the ability of muscle cells to regenerate after injury.
Finally, several proteins have recently been shown to inhibit muscular dystrophy
in mouse models. Because some of these proteins are enriched at the
neuromuscular synapse, the manipulation of factors governing synaptic
transcription is a promising new approach to the treatment of muscular
dystrophy.

Publication Types:
    Review
    Review, Tutorial

PMID: 12810197 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


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2: FASEB J. 1995 Dec;9(15):1595-604. 

Transcription factor families: muscling in on the myogenic program.

Ludolph DC, Konieczny SF.

Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
47907-1392, USA.

Embryonic skeletal muscle development has become a paradigm for understanding
the molecular basis of how cell lineages are established and how cells
differentiate into specialized structures. Most vertebrate muscles are derived
from individual somites that produce two distinct muscle populations: the
myotomal muscles that generate the axial and trunk musculature and a second
migratory cell population that colonizes regions of the developing limbs. In
both instances, muscle differentiation is accompanied by cell cycle arrest,
fusion of individual myoblasts into multinucleate myotubes, and the
transcriptional activation of muscle-specific genes. Recent experimental
progress has led to greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms that
control myogenesis in the embryo. Most of the advances have come from the
identification and isolation of regulatory genes that are involved in
controlling specific transcriptional events. In particular, the muscle
regulatory factor (MRF) and myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) families have been
implicated in establishing the myogenic lineage as well as controlling terminal
differentiation. Two additional transcription factors, Pax-3 and MLP, also
appear to play a role in the production of a mature muscle cell. This review
focuses on these four vertebrate transcription factor families and discusses the
experimental evidence that these factors play important, non-overlapping roles
in regulating skeletal muscle development.

Publication Types:
    Review
    Review, Tutorial

PMID: 8529839 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


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3: Int J Dev Biol. 1994 Dec;38(4):591-604. 

Control of skeletal muscle-specific transcription: involvement of paired
homeodomain and MADS domain transcription factors.

Duprey P, Lesens C.

Laboratoire de Biologie Moleculaire de la Differenciation, UFR de Biochimie,
Universite Paris VII Denis Diderot, France.

In the last few years, many aspects of skeletal muscle-specific gene regulation
have been explained by the activity of the helix-loop helix (HLH) myogenic
regulatory factors of the MyoD family, which are sequentially expressed during
skeletal muscle formation. However, evidence is accumulating that muscle
specific transcription requires functional interactions of these muscle-specific
HLH factors with other regulatory proteins whose expression is not only
restricted to skeletal muscle. These regulators include the SRF and MEF2 MADS
domain and the MHox paired homeodomain transcription factors. Together with the
aforementioned HLH factors, they build an increasingly complex network of
regulatory factors. Two members of the Pax multigenic family of developmental
control transcription factors, Pax-3 and 7, have been shown to be expressed not
only in nervous tissue but also in skeletal muscle precursor cells. Their
possible involvement in the control of muscle-specific transcription is
discussed in light of known molecular properties of Pax gene products described
in other biological systems.

Publication Types:
    Review
    Review, Tutorial

PMID: 7779681 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


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