Long noncoding RNA lncMREF promotes myogenic differentiation and muscle regeneration by interacting with the Smarca5/p300 complex [RNA-seq]

Here, we identified a novel lncRNA named lncMREF as a specific positive regulator of muscle regeneration in mice, pigs and humans. Functional studies demonstrated that lncMREF is significantly upregulated in activated skeletal muscle satellite cells and promotes myogenic differentiation and muscle regeneration. Mechanistically, lncMREF interacts with Smarca5 to promote chromatin remodeling and accessibility when muscle satellite cells are activated, thereby facilitating genomic binding of p300/H3K27 to upregulate the expression of myogenic regulators, such as MyoD and cell differentiation. Our results unravel a new temporal-specific epigenetic regulation during muscle regeneration and reveal that lncMREF/Smarca5-mediated epigenetic programming is responsible for muscle satellite cell differentiation, which provides new insights into the regulatory mechanism of muscle regeneration in adult animals. Overall design: RNA-seq in skeletal muscle satellite cells differentiated for 2 days from WT mice and lncMREF KO mice