The differentiation of skeletal muscle cells includes the morphogenesis from mononucleated myoblasts to multinucleated myotubes by cell fusion and regulation of gene expression at the transcriptional, posttranscriptional, and translational levels. We ...
The differentiation of skeletal muscle cells includes the morphogenesis from mononucleated myoblasts to multinucleated myotubes by cell fusion and regulation of gene expression at the transcriptional, posttranscriptional, and translational levels. We have screened a cDNA library from chick embryonic myotubes by differential plaque hybridization to isolate genes involved in myoblast differentiation in vitro. In this study. we found a cDNA clone. pJS323, thet hybridized with 1.9 and 1.5kb transcripts enhanced about 15-fold when myoblasts were grown in differentiation media (8102), suggesting that these transcripts were accumulated during the myogenic differentiation in vitro. The deduced amino acid sequence of pJS323 cDNA showed a perfect homology to the partial sequence of rhoA, which is known as ras-related GTP binding protein of human, bovine, and canine. Our results suggest that pJS323 gene may be a chicken rhoA and play a role in the myoblast differentiation.