Serum Response Factor and Co-Factors, Roles in Cardiac Development

Publisher Summary This chapter highlights how serum response factor regulates target genes during the elaboration of the embryonic cardiovascular system. Recent conditional knockout studies support an obligatory role for serum response factor in cardiogenesis, which has also led to the discovery of hundreds of serum response factor-dependent coding gene targets and many noncoding microRNAs. Serum response factor cofactors that appear during cardiogenesis are scrutinized for their ability to form combinatorial complexes that activate and repress serum response factor–dependent cardiovascular restricted gene programs. It spotlights a novel regulatory mechanism whereby specific phosphorylation of a single amino acid residue regulates serum response factor–dependent myogenic gene activity during muscle differentiation.