Developmentally regulated slow troponin C messenger RNA in chicken skeletal and cardiac muscles

Regulation of slow troponin C gene expression was examined in both skeletal and cardiac muscle at various stages of development in chicken. The steady-state levels of troponin C mRNA were initially measured by Northern blot analysis. It was observed that the level of troponin C mRNA reached its maximum in both skeletal and cardiac muscle of 16- to 18-day-old embryos. A drop in troponin C mRNA level was observed just prior to hatching. The level of actin mRNA, myosin heavy chain mRNA, and mRNA for a nonmuscle protein, vimentin, was also similarly regulated during development of chicken muscles. Further studies were carried out to determine the level of slow troponin C mRNA using nuclease S1 protection analysis. A significant amount of slow troponin C mRNA was found in the skeletal muscle of adult chicken, which predominantly consists of the fast isoform of troponin C. This observation suggests the possibility of post-transcriptional control of slow troponin C synthesis in skeletal muscle. Primary cultures of cardiac myocytes were also used to determine how the troponin C mRNA level is regulated in a culture of cardiac muscle cells. Measurements of the steady-state levels of slow troponin C mRNA by nuclease S1 protection analysis show that it was maximal in 60-h-old cultures. A drop in the level of this mRNA was observed after these cells were maintained in culture for 4 days.