MyoD, also known as myoblast determination protein 1, is a protein in animals that plays a major role in regulating muscle differentiation. MyoD, which was discovered in the laboratory of Harold M. Weintraub, belongs to a family of proteins known as myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs). These bHLH (basic helix loop helix) transcription factors act sequentially in myogenic differentiation. Vertebrate MRF family members include MyoD1, Myf5, myogenin, and MRF4 (Myf6). In non-vertebrate animals, a single MyoD protein is typically found.

MyoD is one of the earliest markers of myogenic commitment. MyoD is expressed at extremely low and essentially undetectable levels in quiescent satellite cells, but expression of MyoD is activated in response to exercise or muscle tissue damage. The effect of MyoD on satellite cells is dose-dependent; high MyoD expression represses cell renewal, promotes terminal differentiation and can induce apoptosis. Although MyoD marks myoblast commitment, muscle development is not dramatically ablated in mouse mutants lacking the MyoD gene. This is likely due to functional redundancy from Myf5 and/or Mrf4. Nevertheless, the combination of MyoD and Myf5 is vital to the success of myogenesis.

MyoD was cloned by a functional assay for muscle formation reported in Cell in 1987 by Davis, Weintraub, and Lassar. It was first described as a nuclear phosphoprotein in 1988 by Tapscott, Davis, Thayer, Cheng, Weintraub, and Lassar in Science. The researchers expressed the complementary DNA (cDNA) of the murine MyoD protein in a different cell lines (fibroblast and adipoblast) and found MyoD converted them to myogenic cells. The following year, the same research team performed several tests to determine both the structure and function of the protein, confirming their initial proposal that the active site of the protein consisted of the helix loop helix (now referred to as basic helix loop helix) for dimerization and a basic site upstream of this bHLH region facilitated DNA binding only once it became a protein dimer. MyoD has since been an active area of research as still relatively little is known concerning many aspects of its function.

The function of MyoD in development is to commit mesoderm cells to a skeletal myoblast lineage, and then to regulate that continued state. MyoD may also regulate muscle repair. MyoD mRNA levels are also reported to be elevated in aging skeletal muscle.

One of the main actions of MyoD is to remove cells from the cell cycle (halt proliferation for terminal cell cycle arrest in differentiated myocytes) by enhancing the transcription of p21 and myogenin. MyoD is inhibited by cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs). CDKs are in turn inhibited by p21. Thus MyoD enhances its own activity in the cell in a feedforward manner.

Sustained MyoD expression is necessary for retaining the expression of muscle-related genes.

MyoD is also an important effector for the fast-twitch muscle fiber (types IIA, IIX, and IIB) phenotype.

MyoD is a transcription factor and can also direct chromatin remodelling through binding to a DNA motif known as the E-box. MyoD is known to have binding interactions with hundreds of muscular gene promoters and to permit myoblast proliferation. While not completely understood, MyoD is now thought to function as a major myogenesis controller in an on/off switch association mediated by KAP1 (KRAB [Krüppel-like associated box]-associated protein 1) phosphorylation. KAP1 is localized at muscle-related genes in myoblasts along with both MyoD and Mef2 (a myocyte transcription enhancer factor). Here, it serves as a scaffold and recruits the coactivators p300 and LSD1, in addition to several corepressors which include G9a and the Histone deacetylase HDAC1. The consequence of this coactivator/corepressor recruitment is silenced promoting regions on muscle genes. When the kinase MSK1 phosphorylates KAP1, the corepressors previously bound to the scaffold are released allowing MyoD and Mef2 to activate transcription.