SUFU in SHH signalling mediated myogenesis
Abstract
Myogenesis is defined as the formation of skeletal muscle tissue during embryonic development and involves a multitude of cellular signalling pathways. Among these include the Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signalling pathway which must be deactivated for differentiation into muscle cells to occur. However, less is known regarding the pathways operation during cell differentiation and whether Suppressor of Fused (SUFU), the protein inhibitor of Shh signalling, plays a role. To address this, mouse C2C12 myoblast cells were utilized as a model and differentiated into muscle cells to identify the presence of SUFU during this time. Experiments in qRT-PCR show a decrease in Shh responsive gene transcripts after induced differentiation thus confirming the deactivation of the pathway during this time. Alongside this, immunoblotting results show the absence of SUFU during proliferation of the cells and its presence throughout differentiation. These results postulate a role for SUFU as an inhibitor during Shh mediated myogenesis.