A rare human sequence variant reveals myocardin autoinhibition.
Myocardin (MYOCD) is a transcriptional co-activator that promotes cardiac or smooth muscle gene programs through its interaction with myocyte-enhancing factor (MEF2) or serum-response factor (SRF). Isoforms of MYOCD with a truncated amino terminus show increased activity when compared with those with the full-length amino terminus, but how this is achieved remains unknown. We identified a rare human sequence variation in MYOCD in a patient with congenital heart disease that resulted in a missense mutation at codon 259 (K259R). This variation created a hypomorphic cardiac isoform with impaired SRF binding and transactivation capacity but did not impair the smooth muscle isoform of MYOCD, which lacks the amino terminus. Consistent with differential effects of the amino terminus on the K259R mutation, we found that the cardiac-specific amino terminus acted in an autoinhibitory fashion to bind MYOCD via specific negatively charged residues and thereby repressed SRF-dependent MYOCD activity. This effect was exaggerated in the MYOCD-K259R mutant. The amino terminus was sufficient to impair MYOCD-dependent fibroblast conversion into smooth muscle cells as well as cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. These findings identify a novel mechanism that regulates levels of MYOCD-dependent activation of the SRF genetic program differentially in cardiac and smooth muscle.
Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, University of California, San Francisco, California 94158, USA.
Joshua F
JF
Ransom
Isabelle N
IN
King
Vidu
V
Garg
Deepak
D
Srivastava
D000818:Animals; D019556:COS Cells; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D020125:Mutation, Missense; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015533:Transcriptional Activation / Q000235:genetics; D000099251:Myocardin
D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; D000099251:Myocardin