The nuclear protein-coding gene ANKRD23 negatively regulates myoblast differentiation.

Muscle fiber formation is a complex process and subject to fine regulation of a variety of protein-coding genes and non-coding RNA. In this study, we identified a nuclear protein-coding gene ANKRD23 which was highly expressed in muscle. Quantitative real-time PCR, western blotting and immunofluorescence were used to detect the expression change of myoblast differentiation marker genes after knockdown and overexpression of ANKRD23. The results showed that the expression of myoblast differentiation marker genes were increased by interference and reduced by ANKRD23 overexpression, indicating that ANKRD23 played a negative role in the myoblast differentiation. Interestingly, we discovered a long non-coding RNA-AK004293 which was overlapped with the 3'UTR of ANKRD23 gene. Then we detected the effect of AK004293 on the expression of ANKRD23 and myoblast differentiation marker genes in C2C12 myoblasts. The results showed that AK004293 had no significant effect on the expression of myoblast differentiation maker genes and ANKRD23. In conclusion, our results established the foundation for further studies about the regulation mechanism of ANKRD23 in muscle development.