Signaling through mitogen-activated protein kinase and Rac/Rho does not duplicate the effects of activated Ras on skeletal myogenesis

The ability of basic helix-loop-helix muscle regulatory factors (MRFs), such as MyoD, to convert nonmuscle cells to a myogenic lineage is regulated by numerous growth factor and oncoprotein signaling pathways. Previous studies have shown that H-Ras 12V inhibits differentiation to a skeletal muscle lineage by disrupting MRF function via a mechanism that is independent of the dimerization, DNA binding, and inherent transcriptional activation properties of the proteins. To investigate the intracellular signaling pathway(s) that mediates the inhibition of MRF-induced myogenesis by oncogenic Ras, we tested two transformation-defective H-Ras 12V effector domain variants for their ability to alter terminal differentiation. H-Ras 12V,35S retains the ability to activate the Raf/MEK/mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade, whereas H-Ras 12V,40C is unable to interact directly with Raf-1 yet still influences other signaling intermediates, including Rac and Rho. Expression of each H-Ras 12V variant in C3H10T1/2 cells abrogates MyoD-induced activation of the complete myogenic program, suggesting that MAP kinase-dependent and -independent Ras signaling pathways individually block myogenesis in this model system. However, additional studies with constitutively activated Rac1 and RhoA proteins revealed no negative effects on MyoD-induced myogenesis. Similarly, treatment of Ras-inhibited myoblasts with the MEK1 inhibitor PD98059 revealed that elevated MAP kinase activity is not a significant contributor to the H-Ras 12V effect. These data suggest that an additional Ras pathway, distinct from the well-characterized MAP kinase and Rac/Rho pathways known to be important for the transforming function of activated Ras, is primarily responsible for the inhibition of myogenesis by H-Ras 12V.