MEF2: a calcium-dependent regulator of cell division, differentiation and death

Class II histone deacetylases: versatile regulators

“…MEF2 plays a significant transcriptional regulatory role in myogenesis, in negative selection of developing thymocytes, and in the transcriptional regulation of Epstein -Barr virus (EBV) (for a complete review see Ref. [59]). The striking similarity of MEF2 regulation in neurons and its role in neuronal resistance to excitotoxicity suggests that class IIa HDACs also play a significant role in neurons [60][61][62].…”

Class IIa histone deacetylases: regulating the regulators

“…This and other observations are compatible with a simple model in which, through interaction with the N terminus of class IIa HDACs, DNA-bound MEF2 would recruits the HDAC activity associated with their C termini to deacetylate local chromatin and repress transcription. This would establish class IIa HDACs as general transcriptional repressors of the multitude of promoters that are under the control of MEF2 transcription factors (McKinsey et al, 2002). Accordingly, the ability of class IIa HDACs to act as potent inhibitors of MEF2-dependent transcription has been extensively documented Sparrow et al, 1999;Wang et al, 1999;Lemercier et al, 2000;Lu et al, 2000b;Dressel et al, 2001).…”

“…Surprisingly, most of the biological functions attributed to class IIa HDACs to Class IIa histone deacetylases M Martin et al date rely directly or indirectly on their interaction with the members of the MEF2 family of transcription factors. Specific MEF2 isoforms play important transcriptional regulatory roles in myogenesis (Black and Olson, 1998;McKinsey et al, 2002), cardiac differentiation and metabolism (McKinsey et al, 2002), neuronal differentiation and survival (Heidenreich and Linseman, 2004), negative selection of thymocytes (Woronicz et al, 1994(Woronicz et al, , 1995 and vascular development (Lin et al, 1998).…”

Cardiomyogenesis of embryonic stem cells upon purinergic receptor activation by ADP and ATP

“…During embryonic heart formation, a couple of cardiogenic factors turn on Ca 2+ -dependent signaling pathways in cardiac progenitor cells. All cardiogenic factors are integrated into transcriptional networks, among which [Ca 2+ ] i plays a principal role [16,17,22]. Purinergic receptors, also known as purinoceptors, belong to the first group of receptors which stimulate intracellular [Ca 2+ ] i signaling during the early time of embryonic development as well as cardiogenesis [23][24][25].…”

“…[Ca 2+ ] i mobilization plays a central role in the regulation of gene transcription. For instance translocation of Mef2c, a cardiac-specific transcription factor, into the nucleus is a calcium-dependent process in the regulation of cardiac cell differentiation [22,25,27].…”