MEF2 Pathway

The Myocyte Enhancer Factor 2 (MEF2) signal pathway is a crucial regulatory network involved in muscle development, differentiation, and various other cellular processes. Dysregulation of MEF2 can lead to muscle-related diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, heart diseases, including hypertrophy and heart failure, neural development issues and neurodegenerative diseases. [Ref1].

2. Lentivirus Detects MEF2 Pathway:

GenTarget developed a set of reporting lentivirus to monitor MEF2 signaling pathway activity. Those reporting lentivirus has a luminescent report (Luciferase) or a fluorescent report (GFP), under a minimal CMV promoter (mCMV) that embedded with optimized tandem repeats of pathway specific MEF2 binding sites as the transcriptional response element (TRE ), sequence motif (5′- CTAAAAAGTAA-ccct-CTATTTTGTAA  3′) [Ref 2].

The MEF2 signaling pathway can be activated by various extracellular and intracellular signals, including calcium influx, growth factors, stress signals, metabolic changes, and mechanical stress. These signals activate specific kinases and pathways that phosphorylate and modulate MEF2.

Upon activation, the MEF2 bind to the MEF2 binding site in the report’s promoter region, leading to increased expression of the reporter protein (luciferase or GFP).

3. Structure of the Reporting Lentivirus:

The pathway specific reporting Lentivirus use either firefly-luciferase or GFP signal changes to detect the pathway’s activity.   Those reporting lentivirus also contains a constitutively expressed Puromycin antibiotic selection marker, or a GFP fluorescent selection marker, which makes it easier to select the stably transduced signal reporting cells, via Puromycin killing or GFP sorting respectively. See lentivector core scheme below.

The premade, ready-to-use reporter lentivirus provides a much easier tool to monitor the activity of the signaling pathways in virtually any mammalian cell type. It also allows to generate your own reporting cell line in your desired cell type for study or screening of pathway specific gene-knockdown, over-expression, or chemical / drug/protein treatment in the cell based assay.

Click the Product Manual (pdf) for all available products for this pathway reporter.