Myogenin, is a transcriptional activator encoded by the ''MYOG''
gene
In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
.
Myogenin is a muscle-specific
basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH)
transcription factor
In molecular biology, a transcription factor (TF) (or sequence-specific DNA-binding factor) is a protein that controls the rate of transcription (genetics), transcription of genetics, genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA, by binding t ...
involved in the coordination of
skeletal muscle
Skeletal muscle (commonly referred to as muscle) is one of the three types of vertebrate muscle tissue, the others being cardiac muscle and smooth muscle. They are part of the somatic nervous system, voluntary muscular system and typically are a ...
development or
myogenesis
Myogenesis is the formation of skeletal muscle, skeletal muscular tissue, particularly during embryonic development.
Skeletal muscle#Skeletal muscle cells, Muscle fibers generally form through the fusion of precursor cell, precursor myoblasts in ...
and repair. Myogenin is a member of the
MyoD family of transcription factors, which also includes
MyoD
MyoD, also known as myoblast determination protein 1, is a protein in animals that plays a major role in regulating muscle differentiation. MyoD, which was discovered in the laboratory of Harold M. Weintraub, belongs to a family of proteins kn ...
,
Myf5, and
MRF4.
In mice, myogenin is essential for the development of functional skeletal muscle. Myogenin is required for the proper differentiation of most myogenic precursor cells during the process of
myogenesis
Myogenesis is the formation of skeletal muscle, skeletal muscular tissue, particularly during embryonic development.
Skeletal muscle#Skeletal muscle cells, Muscle fibers generally form through the fusion of precursor cell, precursor myoblasts in ...
. When the DNA coding for myogenin was knocked out of the mouse
genome
A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...
, severe skeletal muscle defects were observed. Mice lacking both copies of myogenin (
homozygous
Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism.
Mos ...
-null) suffer from
perinatal lethality due to the lack of mature secondary skeletal muscle fibers throughout the body.
In cell culture, myogenin can induce myogenesis in a variety of non-muscle cell types.
Interactions
Myogenin has been shown to
interact with:
*
MDFI,
*
POLR2C,
*
Serum response factor
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{Transcription factors, g1
Gene expression
Human proteins