Although the mechanisms controlling skeletal muscle homeostasis have been identified, there is a lack of knowledge of the integrated dynamic processes occurring during myogenesis and their regulation. Here, metabolism, autophagy and differentiation were concomitantly analyzed in mouse muscle satellite cell (MSC)-derived myoblasts and their cross-talk addressed by drug and genetic manipulation. We show that increased mitochondrial biogenesis and activation of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 inactivation-independent basal autophagy characterize the conversion of myoblasts into myotubes. Notably, inhibition of autophagic flux halts cell fusion in the latest stages of differentiation and, conversely, when the fusion step of myocytes is impaired the biogenesis of autophagosomes is also impaired. By using myoblasts derived from p53 null mice, we show that in the absence of p53 glycolysis prevails and mitochondrial biogenesis is strongly impaired. P53 null myoblasts show defective terminal differentiation and attenuated basal autophagy when switched into differentiating culture conditions. In conclusion, we demonstrate that basal autophagy contributes to a correct execution of myogenesis and that physiological p53 activity is required for muscle homeostasis by regulating metabolism and by affecting autophagy and differentiation.

No abstract

DNA single-strand breaks (SSB) formation coordinates the myogenic program, and defects in SSB repair in post-mitotic cells have been associated with human diseases. However, the DNA damage response by SSB in terminally differentiated cells has not been explored yet. Here we show that mouse post-mitotic muscle cells accumulate SSB after alkylation damage, but they are extraordinarily resistant to the killing effects of a variety of SSB-inducers. We demonstrate that, upon SSB induction, phosphorylation of H2AX occurs in myotubes and is largely ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM)-dependent. However, the DNA damage signaling cascade downstream of ATM is defective as shown by lack of p53 increase and phosphorylation at serine 18 (human serine 15). The stabilization of p53 by nutlin-3 was ineffective in activating the cell death pathway, indicating that the resistance to SSB inducers is due to defective p53 downstream signaling. The induction of specific types of damage is required to activate the cell death program in myotubes. Besides the topoisomerase inhibitor doxorubicin known for its cardiotoxicity, we show that the mitochondria-specific inhibitor menadione is able to activate p53 and to kill effectively myotubes. Cell killing is p53-dependent as demonstrated by full protection of myotubes lacking p53, but there is a restriction of p53-activated genes. This new information may have important therapeutic implications in the prevention of muscle cell toxicity. Cells respond to genotoxic stress by activating a signaling cascade known as the DNA damage response (DDR). The DDR is a complex interlaced network comprised of DNA damage repair factors and cell cycle regulators. 1 Our knowledge of the mechanisms of DDR mainly relies on studies conducted in proliferating cells, in which the cell cycle machinery is integrated with the DNA damage signaling. Much less is known in post-mitotic cells that undergo irreversible cell cycle withdrawal. DNA repair is strongly affected by the exit from the cell cycle as revealed by downregulation of the major DNA repair pathways. 2 This occurs during differentiation-associated gene reprogramming at transcriptional level as in the case of genes coding for proteins shared by DNA repair and replication (e.g., replicative DNA polymerases, Flap structure-specific endonuclease 1, proliferating cell nuclear antigen and DNA ligase 1) 3 or repair proteins that are cell-cycle related (e.g., XRCC1 (X-ray repair complementing defective repair in Chinese hamster cells 1), uracil-DNA glycosylase). 4,5 Alternatively, post-translational modifications may modify the efficiency of specific DNA repair components as in the case of transcription factor II H that, because of reduced ubiquitination, may lead to decreased global genomic nucleotide excision repair typical of differentiated cells. 6 Exposure of single-stranded (ss) DNA and/or the generation of double-strand breaks (DSB) are powerful activators of DDR by recruiting and activating two protein kinases, ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR)...

No abstract