Myoblast differentiation is associated with and benefits from increased autophagy

The goal of this study was to identify potentially novel mechanisms that mediate myoblast differentiation using the C2C12 cell as a myoblast model. The study started with an RNA-seq analysis to identify genes differentially expressed during myoblast differentiation. This analysis and subsequent functional analysis resulted in the identification of autophagy as one of the upregulated biological processes in differentiating myoblasts. Overall design: RNA-seq libraries were prepared from 5 samples of undifferentiated C2C12 cells and 5 samples of differentiating C2C12 cells. RNA-seq libraries were sequenced and sequencing reads mapped and analyzed.