Enigma homolog 1 promotes myogenic gene expression and differentiation of C2C12 cells

•The roles of ENH splicing variants in C2C12 differentiation are examined.•PDZ- and LIM-containing ENH1 is essential for myogenic differentiation.•LIM-less ENHs disrupts morphological transformation.•Development switch from ENH1 to LIM-less ENHs ensures normal differentiation. The Enigma homolog (ENH) gene generates several splicing variants. The initially identified ENH1 possesses one PDZ and three LIM domains, whereas ENH2∼4 lack the latter domains. The splicing switch from ENH1 to LIM-less ENHs occurs during development/maturation of skeletal and heart muscles. We examined for the roles of ENH splicing variants in muscle differentiation using C2C12 cells. Cells stably expressing ENH1 exhibited significantly higher MyoD and myogenin mRNA levels before differentiation and after 5days in low serum-differentiating medium than mock-transfected cells. ENH1-stable transformants also retained the ability to exhibit elongated morphology with well-extended actin fibers following differentiation. In contrast, cells stably expressing ENH3 or ENH4 did not show myotube-like morphology or reorganization of actin fibers following culture in the differentiating medium. Transient overexpression of ENH1 using adenovirus supported the increased expression of muscle marker mRNAs and the formation of well-organized stress fibers, whereas ENH4 overexpression prevented these morphological changes. Furthermore, specific suppression of ENH1 expression by RNAi caused a significant reduction in MyoD mRNA level and blocked the morphological changes. These results suggest that ENH1 with multiple protein–protein interaction modules is essential for differentiation of striated muscles, whereas ectopic expression of LIM-less ENH disrupts normal muscle differentiation.