Epigenetics of Striated Muscle

A special issue of Epigenomes (ISSN 2075-4655).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 October 2021) | Viewed by 10353

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Hayward Human Genetics Center, Tulane Cancer Center, and the Center for Bioinformatics and Genomics, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
Interests: DNA methylation; chromatin epigenetics; regulation of skeletal muscle development; cancer epigenetics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Skeletal and cardiac muscle are especially complicated tissue types that form through intricate differentiation pathways. Both types of striated muscle also play many predominant roles in health. Epigenetic changes are drivers of differentiation and many types of disease, including those of striated muscle. According to PubMed searches, research focused on the epigenetics of striated muscle has gone from only 6 articles in 2000, to 128 in 2010, and 539 in 2020. This Special Issue is devoted to reports of any aspect of epigenetics (chromatin epigenetics, DNA methylation, and non-coding RNAs) that elucidates the formation, maintenance, physiology, or pathology of skeletal or cardiac muscle. Among the types of articles that we are soliciting are gene-centered experiments on cell or animal models, whole-genome studies (including highly informative bioinformatics), clinically based studies, and review articles. Special efforts will be expended to review manuscripts quickly and fairly.

Prof. Dr. Melanie Ehrlich
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • epigenetics
  • epigenomics
  • chromatin
  • DNA methylation
  • non-coding RNA
  • skeletal muscle
  • cardiac muscle
  • myoblasts
  • myocytes
  • myopathy

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 8175 KiB  
Article
Epigenetics of Mitochondria-Associated Genes in Striated Muscle
by Kenneth C. Ehrlich, Hong-Wen Deng and Melanie Ehrlich
Epigenomes 2022, 6(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/epigenomes6010001 - 22 Dec 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5041
Abstract
Striated muscle has especially large energy demands. We identified 97 genes preferentially expressed in skeletal muscle and heart, but not in aorta, and found significant enrichment for mitochondrial associations among them. We compared the epigenomic and transcriptomic profiles of the 27 genes associated [...] Read more.
Striated muscle has especially large energy demands. We identified 97 genes preferentially expressed in skeletal muscle and heart, but not in aorta, and found significant enrichment for mitochondrial associations among them. We compared the epigenomic and transcriptomic profiles of the 27 genes associated with striated muscle and mitochondria. Many showed strong correlations between their tissue-specific transcription levels, and their tissue-specific promoter, enhancer, or open chromatin as well as their DNA hypomethylation. Their striated muscle-specific enhancer chromatin was inside, upstream, or downstream of the gene, throughout much of the gene as a super-enhancer (CKMT2, SLC25A4, and ACO2), or even overlapping a neighboring gene (COX6A2, COX7A1, and COQ10A). Surprisingly, the 3′ end of the 1.38 Mb PRKN (PARK2) gene (involved in mitophagy and linked to juvenile Parkinson’s disease) displayed skeletal muscle/myoblast-specific enhancer chromatin, a myoblast-specific antisense RNA, as well as brain-specific enhancer chromatin. We also found novel tissue-specific RNAs in brain and embryonic stem cells within PPARGC1A (PGC-1α), which encodes a master transcriptional coregulator for mitochondrial formation and metabolism. The tissue specificity of this gene’s four alternative promoters, including a muscle-associated promoter, correlated with nearby enhancer chromatin and open chromatin. Our in-depth epigenetic examination of these genes revealed previously undescribed tissue-specific enhancer chromatin, intragenic promoters, regions of DNA hypomethylation, and intragenic noncoding RNAs that give new insights into transcription control for this medically important set of genes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Epigenetics of Striated Muscle)
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Review

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13 pages, 1003 KiB  
Review
Muscles in Winter: The Epigenetics of Metabolic Arrest
by W. Aline Ingelson-Filpula and Kenneth B. Storey
Epigenomes 2021, 5(4), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/epigenomes5040028 - 16 Dec 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4239
Abstract
The winter months are challenging for many animal species, which often enter a state of dormancy or hypometabolism to “wait out” the cold weather, food scarcity, reduced daylight, and restricted mobility that can characterize the season. To survive, many species use metabolic rate [...] Read more.
The winter months are challenging for many animal species, which often enter a state of dormancy or hypometabolism to “wait out” the cold weather, food scarcity, reduced daylight, and restricted mobility that can characterize the season. To survive, many species use metabolic rate depression (MRD) to suppress nonessential metabolic processes, conserving energy and limiting tissue atrophy particularly of skeletal and cardiac muscles. Mammalian hibernation is the best recognized example of winter MRD, but some turtle species spend the winter unable to breathe air and use MRD to survive with little or no oxygen (hypoxia/anoxia), and various frogs endure the freezing of about two-thirds of their total body water as extracellular ice. These winter survival strategies are highly effective, but create physiological and metabolic challenges that require specific biochemical adaptive strategies. Gene-related processes as well as epigenetic processes can lower the risk of atrophy during prolonged inactivity and limited nutrient stores, and DNA modifications, mRNA storage, and microRNA action are enacted to maintain and preserve muscle. This review article focuses on epigenetic controls on muscle metabolism that regulate MRD to avoid muscle atrophy and support winter survival in model species of hibernating mammals, anoxia-tolerant turtles and freeze-tolerant frogs. Such research may lead to human applications including muscle-wasting disorders such as sarcopenia, or other conditions of limited mobility. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Epigenetics of Striated Muscle)
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