Recruitment of beta-catenin to cadherin-mediated intercellular adhesions is involved in myogenic induction.
Cadherin-mediated cell adhesion is involved in muscle differentiation from early stages of myogenic induction to late stages of myoblast interaction and fusion. beta-Catenin is a major constituent of cadherin-based adherens junctions and also serves as a signal transduction molecule that regulates gene expression during development. In this study, we explored the involvement of beta-catenin in myogenic differentiation. We show here that shortly after a switch from growth to differentiation medium, beta-catenin translocates to cell-cell junctions and its levels increase. We further show that elevation of beta-catenin levels, induced either by inhibition of its breakdown, using LiCl, or by its overexpression, suppresses the formation of adherens junctions, resulting in a sharp decline in myogenin expression and an arrest of myogenic progression. Recruitment of beta-catenin to adherens junctions after transfection with N-cadherin restores myogenin expression in the transfected cells. These results suggest that increased cadherin-mediated adhesion and translocation of beta-catenin to adherens junctions are involved in activating the early steps of myogenic differentiation.
Department of Molecular Cell Biology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
P
P
Goichberg
M
M
Shtutman
A
A
Ben-Ze'ev
B
B
Geiger
D022005:Adherens Junctions / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D015820:Cadherins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002460:Cell Line; D003470:Culture Media; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015870:Gene Expression; D051379:Mice; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D018008:Myogenin / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D015534:Trans-Activators; D051176:beta Catenin
C495267:CTNNB1 protein, mouse; D015820:Cadherins; C495268:Ctnnb1 protein, rat; D003470:Culture Media; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; C503801:Myog protein, mouse; C503803:Myog protein, rat; D018008:Myogenin; D015534:Trans-Activators; D051176:beta Catenin