Regulation of muscle gene expression: The accumulation of messenger RNAs coding for muscle-specific proteins during myogenesis in a mouse cell line

Abstract

The expression of RNA sequences coding for myofibrillar proteins has been followed during terminal differentiation in a mouse skeletal muscle cell line. Cloned complementary DNA probes hybridizing with the actins, skeletal muscle α-actin, myosin heavy chain and the myosin alkali light chains were employed in Northern blotting experiments with total cellular poly (A)-containing RNA extracted from the cultures at different times after plating. At the same times, parallel cultures were pulse-labelled with [ 35S]methionine and the pattern of newly synthesized proteins was analysed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Synthesis of skeletal muscle α-actin and of the myosin alkali light chains (LC lemb, LC 1, LC 3) was not detectable in dividing myoblast cultures. From the onset of cell fusion, the synthesis of myosin heavy chain, LC lemb and α-actin increases with similar kinetics. Synthesis of LC 3 (and trace amounts of LC 1F) is detectable and subsequently increases at later stages of myotube formation. The corresponding messenger RNAs coding for myosin heavy chain and skeletal muscle α-actin are first detectable immediately before the initiation of myofibrillar protein synthesis. mRNAs coding for the non-muscle actins are accumulated in myoblasts and diminish after cell fusion. Comparisons between muscle mRNAs depend on the relative sensitivities of the different probes, reflecting mainly their homology with the isoform of the actin or myosin multigene family expressed. Quantitative analysis of Northern blots gives an estimated increase in skeletal muscle α-actin mRNA, with an homologous probe, of at least 130-fold with a minimum level of detection of 40 to 80 molecules per cell. Accumulation of this species and of the myosin heavy chain mRNA follows similar kinetics. mRNA coding for LC 3, the principal myosin light chain detected with the probe, appears to accumulate to a lesser extent initially, paralleling synthesis of the corresponding protein. These results using cloned probes demonstrate a close temporal correlation between muscle mRNA accumulation and protein synthesis during terminal myogenesis in this muscle line.