c-myc inhibition of MyoD and myogenin-initiated myogenic differentiation.

In vertebrate development, a prominent feature of several cell lineages is the coupling of cell cycle regulation with terminal differentiation. We have investigated the basis of this relationship in the skeletal muscle lineage by studying the effects of the proliferation-associated regulator, c-myc, on the differentiation of MyoD-initiated myoblasts. Transient cotransfection assays in NIH 3T3 cells using MyoD and c-myc expression vectors demonstrated c-myc suppression of MyoD-initiated differentiation. A stable cell system was also developed in which MyoD expression was constitutive, while myc levels could be elevated conditionally. Induction of this conditional c-myc suppressed myogenesis effectively, even in the presence of MyoD. c-myc suppression also prevented up-regulation of a relative of MyoD, myogenin, which is normally expressed at the onset of differentiation in all muscle cell lines examined and may be essential for differentiation. Additional experiments tested whether failure to differentiate in the presence of myc could be overcome by providing myogenin ectopically. Cotransfection of c-myc with myogenin, MyoD, or a mixture of myogenin and MyoD showed that neither myogenin alone nor myogenin plus MyoD together could bypass the c-myc block. The effects of c-myc were further dissected by showing that c-myc can inhibit differentiation independently of Id, a negative regulator of muscle differentiation. These results lead us to propose that c-myc and Id constitute independent negative regulators of muscle differentiation, while myogenin and any of the other three related myogenic factors (MyoD, Myf-5, and MRF4/herculin/Myf-6) act as positive regulators.