The RNA-binding proteins IMPs (IGF-II mRNA binding protein) first discovered in rhabdomyosarcoma cells (RMS) are expressed during embryonic development but their expression is decreased in adult tissues.We showed that IMPs and particularly IMP-2 are strongly expressed in mouse myoblatsts, during early regeneration of skeletal muscle in vivo and in and RMS. IMP-2 loss of function experiments using siRNA have shown that IMP-2 is necessary for microtubules stability(MTs), cell motility and invasion of myoblasts and RMS.Expression of IMP-2 specifically increases MTs stability by an enrichment of detyrosinated tubulin Glu-tubulin. Detyrosination is indispensable for myogenic differentiation and plays substantial role in tumor growth. Additionaly, MTs stabilization play an important role in focal adhesion remodeling, in cytoskeleton integrity, cell adhesion and cell motility.To get new insight into molecular mechanism underlying the function of IMP-2 in MTs stability and cell motility, full ranscriptome analysis was performed between IMP-2 knockdown (KD) myoblasts and control myoblatsts. We have further shown that IMP-2 controls the mRNA levels of many important mediators of cell adhesion such as PINCH-2, as well as multiple cytoskeleton remodeling, such as MuRF-3.We have identified a number of functionally relevant protein partners of IMP-2.Moreover subsequent RNAi screens have revealed the importance of IMP-2 regulated transcripts involved in cell motility and cell adhesion In conclusion, we show that IMP-2 dependent regulation of mRNA such as MuRF3 and PINCH2 largely contributes to the motility –deficient in IMP-2 KD cells. Moreover these results indicate clearly, that further analysis of IMP2 protein partners and RNA targets regulated by IMP-2 will help to characterized the function of IMP-2 and to propose a model of IMP-2 transcriptional regulation of gene expression in myoblasts and RMS cells.
