About this Research Topic
Skeletal muscle, with more than 600 individual muscles accounting for ~40% of the adult human body mass, executes support, locomotion, and thermogenesis. Compromised skeletal muscle function results in developmental disorders, dystrophies, atrophies, neuromuscular degenerative diseases, rhabdomyosarcomas, metabolic disorders, and premature aging, with severe consequences on life quality. The pressing need to translate the emerging precise molecular mechanisms of muscle organ formation into novel interventions for muscle diseases is evident.
Gene networks that regulate the myogenic program are supported by epigenetic modifications in response to environmental cues, which in turn reprogram the genome of the progressing cells. Genetic alterations and/or epigenetic modifications lead to loss of molecular memory and alter the proper cell type or network state progression that results in normal organs. Myogenesis is characterized by a high epigenetic plasticity that may be particularly amendable to therapeutic approaches that alter the epigenetic state of chromatin. DNA and histone modifications can be effective strategies for regenerative medicine.
This Research Topic aims to cover the latest advances in (1) creating, maintaining, and repairing a skeletal muscle, (2) combinatorial gene expression in the developing and diseased muscle states, (3) intrinsic and extrinsic signaling during development and regeneration, (4) cellular and molecular alterations present in skeletal muscle related diseases and injury, (5) epigenetic modifications during muscle development and disease.
The deconvolution of gene networks in combination with the 3D chromatin state of specific genomic loci provide paradigms to understand tissue and organ development and regeneration and help to identify the molecular pathways that control the transition from stem cells to specialized cells—a current challenge in regenerative medicine.
Original Research and Review Articles that address
o Muscle development - gene networks and epigenetic influence
o Muscle disease - cellular and molecular mechanisms
o Muscle repair - lessons from development and evolution
Gene networks that regulate the myogenic program are supported by epigenetic modifications in response to environmental cues, which in turn reprogram the genome of the progressing cells. Genetic alterations and/or epigenetic modifications lead to loss of molecular memory and alter the proper cell type or network state progression that results in normal organs. Myogenesis is characterized by a high epigenetic plasticity that may be particularly amendable to therapeutic approaches that alter the epigenetic state of chromatin. DNA and histone modifications can be effective strategies for regenerative medicine.
This Research Topic aims to cover the latest advances in (1) creating, maintaining, and repairing a skeletal muscle, (2) combinatorial gene expression in the developing and diseased muscle states, (3) intrinsic and extrinsic signaling during development and regeneration, (4) cellular and molecular alterations present in skeletal muscle related diseases and injury, (5) epigenetic modifications during muscle development and disease.
The deconvolution of gene networks in combination with the 3D chromatin state of specific genomic loci provide paradigms to understand tissue and organ development and regeneration and help to identify the molecular pathways that control the transition from stem cells to specialized cells—a current challenge in regenerative medicine.
Original Research and Review Articles that address
o Muscle development - gene networks and epigenetic influence
o Muscle disease - cellular and molecular mechanisms
o Muscle repair - lessons from development and evolution
Keywords: muscle, development, epigenetics, disease, therapy
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
