Charles P. Emerson, Jr., Ph.D.
Director and Senior Scientist
Stem cells, skeletal myogenesis, muscle regeneration, tumorgenesis
Email: emersonc at bbri.org

Research Summary
Our laboratory investigates signaling and transcriptional mechanisms controlling skeletal myogenesis, muscle regeneration and tumorigenesis.  Molecular, transgenic and genetic approaches are being used in mouse and chick embryos to characterize transcription enhancers and signaling regulators that control the myogenic regulatory genes, Myf5 and MyoD, for specification of muscle progenitor lineages. Novel regulatory genes have been identified, including a new family of heparan sulfatase enzymes that function as regulators of Hedgehog, FGF and Wnt signaling in muscle and neural stem cells and as tumor suppressor genes in humans.

Identification of a Myf5 epaxial somite transcription enhancer, by
transgenic analysis of LacZ reporter gene expression in mouse embryos.

Selected Publications
Ambasta RK, Ai X, Emerson CP Jr. Quail Sulf1 function requires asparagine-linked glycosylation. J Biol Chem. 2007 Nov 23;282(47):34492-9. [abstract]

Langsdorf A, Do AT, Kusche-Gullberg M, Emerson CP Jr, Ai X. Sulfs are regulators of growth factor signaling for satellite cell differentiation and muscle regeneration.
Dev Biol. 2007 Nov 15;311(2):464-77. [abstract]

Ai X, Kitazawa T, Do AT, Kusche-Gullberg M, Labosky PA, Emerson CP Jr. SULF1 and SULF2 regulate heparan sulfate-mediated GDNF signaling for esophageal innervation.
Development. 2007 Sep;134(18):3327-38. [abstract]

Riobo NA, Lu K, Emerson CP Jr. Hedgehog signal transduction: signal integration and cross talk in development and cancer. Cell Cycle. 2006 Aug;5(15):1612-5. [abstract]

Danesin C, Agius E, Escalas N, Ai X, Emerson C, Cochard P, Soula C. Ventral neural progenitors switch toward an oligodendroglial fate in response to increased Sonic hedgehog (Shh) activity: involvement of Sulfatase 1 in modulating Shh signaling in the ventral spinal cord. J Neurosci. 2006 May 10;26(19):5037-48. [abstract]

Riobó NA, Lu K, Ai X, Haines GM, Emerson CP Jr. Phosphoinositide 3-kinase and Akt are essential for Sonic Hedgehog signaling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Mar 21;103(12):4505-10. [abstract]

Riobo NA, Haines GM, Emerson CP Jr. Protein kinase C-delta and mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1 control GLI activation in hedgehog signaling. Cancer Res. 2006 Jan 15;66(2):839-45. [abstract]

Ai X, Do AT, Kusche-Gullberg M, Lindahl U, Lu K, Emerson CP Jr. Substrate specificity and domain functions of extracellular heparan sulfate 6-O-endosulfatases, QSulf1 and QSulf2. J Biol Chem. 2006 Feb 24;281(8):4969-76. [abstract]

Ai, X., Kusche-Gullberg, M., Lindahl, U. & Emerson, C. P., Jr. (2005). Remodeling of heparan sulfate sulfation by extracellular endosulfatases. In Chemistry and Biology of Heparin and Heparan Sulfate (Garg, H. G., Linhardt, R. J. & Hales, C. A., eds.), Vol. Chapter 8, pp. 245-258. Elsevier Ltd., New York.

McDermott A, Gustafsson M, Elsam T, Hui CC, Emerson CP Jr, Borycki AG. Gli2 and Gli3 have redundant and context-dependent function in skeletal muscle formation. Development. 2005 Jan;132(2):345-57. [abstract]

Wang S, Ai X, Freeman SD, Pownall ME, Lu Q, Kessler DS, Emerson CP Jr. QSulf1, a heparan sulfate 6-O-endosulfatase, inhibits fibroblast growth factor signaling in mesoderm induction and angiogenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Apr 6;101(14):4833-8. [abstract]

Emerson, C.P. Jr. and Hauschka, S.D. (2004) Embryonic origins of skeletal muscles. In: Myology (A.G. Engel and C. Franzini-Armstrong, eds.) Vol. 1, third edition, McGraw-Hill, NY. 3-44.

Ai X, Do AT, Lozynska O, Kusche-Gullberg M, Lindahl U, Emerson CP Jr. QSulf1 remodels the 6-O sulfation states of cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans to promote Wnt signaling. J Cell Biol. 2003 Jul 21;162(2):341-51. [abstract]

Gustafsson MK, Pan H, Pinney DF, Liu Y, Lewandowski A, Epstein DJ, Emerson CP Jr. Myf5 is a direct target of long-range Shh signaling and Gli regulation for muscle specification. Genes Dev. 2002 Jan 1;16(1):114-26. [abstract]

Dhoot GK, Gustafsson MK, Ai X, Sun W, Standiford DM, Emerson CP Jr. Regulation of Wnt signaling and embryo patterning by an extracellular sulfatase. Science. 2001 Aug 31;293(5535):1663-6. [abstract]

PubMed:
Click here for a list of publications (searches the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database.)