University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications
Title
High-resolution analysis of differential gene expression during skeletal muscle atrophy and programmed cell death
UMMS Affiliation
Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology; Department of Neurobiology; Program in Molecular Medicine
Publication Date
2020-10-01
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins | Bioinformatics | Cell and Developmental Biology | Cellular and Molecular Physiology | Enzymes and Coenzymes | Genetics and Genomics | Molecular Biology | Nucleic Acids, Nucleotides, and Nucleosides
Abstract
Skeletal muscles can undergo atrophy and/or programmed cell death (PCD) during development or in response to a wide range of insults, including immobility, cachexia, and spinal cord injury. However, the protracted nature of atrophy and the presence of multiple cell types within the tissue complicate molecular analyses. One model that does not suffer from these limitations is the intersegmental muscle (ISM) of the tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta. Three days before the adult eclosion (emergence) at the end of metamorphosis, the ISMs initiate a nonpathological program of atrophy that results in a 40% loss of mass. The ISMs then generate the eclosion behavior and initiate a nonapoptotic PCD during the next 30 h. We have performed a comprehensive transcriptomics analysis of all mRNAs and microRNAs throughout ISM development to better understand the molecular mechanisms that mediate atrophy and death. Atrophy involves enhanced protein catabolism and reduced expression of the genes involved in respiration, adhesion, and the contractile apparatus. In contrast, PCD involves the induction of numerous proteases, DNA methylases, membrane transporters, ribosomes, and anaerobic metabolism. These changes in gene expression are largely repressed when insects are injected with the insect steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone, which delays death. The expression of the death-associated proteins may be greatly enhanced by reductions in specific microRNAs that function to repress translation. This study not only provides fundamental new insights into basic developmental processes, it may also represent a powerful resource for identifying potential diagnostic markers and molecular targets for therapeutic intervention.
Keywords
Manduca sexta, autophagy, metamorphosis, proteasome, ubiquitin
DOI of Published Version
10.1152/physiolgenomics.00047.2020
Source
Tsuji J, Thomson T, Chan E, Brown CK, Oppenheimer J, Bigelow C, Dong X, Theurkauf WE, Weng Z, Schwartz LM. High-resolution analysis of differential gene expression during skeletal muscle atrophy and programmed cell death. Physiol Genomics. 2020 Oct 1;52(10):492-511. doi: 10.1152/physiolgenomics.00047.2020. Epub 2020 Sep 14. PMID: 32926651. Link to article on publisher's site
Related Resources
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Physiological genomics
PubMed ID
32926651
Repository Citation
Tsuji J, Thomson T, Chan E, Brown CK, Oppenheimer J, Bigelow C, Dong X, Theurkauf WE, Weng Z, Schwartz LM. (2020). High-resolution analysis of differential gene expression during skeletal muscle atrophy and programmed cell death. University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications. https://doi.org/10.1152/physiolgenomics.00047.2020. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/faculty_pubs/1834