Characterizing a distal muscle enhancer in the mouse Igf2 locus.

ABSTRACT: Insulin-like growth factor-2 (IGF2) is highly expressed in skeletal muscle and was identified as a quantitative trait locus for muscle mass. Yet little is known about mechanisms of its regulation in muscle. Recently, a DNA segment found ∼100 kb from the Igf2 gene was identified as a possible muscle transcriptional control element. Here we have developed an in vivo reporter system to assess this putative enhancer by substituting nuclear (n) EGFP for Igf2 coding exons in a bacterial artificial chromosome containing the mouse Igf2 - H19 chromosomal locus. After stable transfection into a mesenchymal stem cell line, individual clones were converted to myoblasts and underwent progressive muscle-specific gene expression and myotube formation in differentiation medium. Transgenic mRNA and nuclear

SUBMITTER: Alzhanov D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4729695 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature