Identification of membrane proteins participating myogenesis

多细胞生物的协调发展依赖于细胞间的通信和粘连。我们的研究一直集中在鉴定参与这种细胞-细胞相互作用的膜蛋白。首先，我们构建了融合肌细胞的mRNA文库，并将其与成肌细胞的mRNA进行差减。通过对文库的筛选，我们可以鉴定出一些新的膜蛋白。我们现在正试图了解这些蛋白质在肌肉发生中的功能。我们还成功地从融合的肌细胞中分离出了一批单抗。最后，我们研究了亚当蛋白水解酶在肌肉发生中的作用，我们已经将其克隆为成肌转录因子激活的膜蛋白。基于对梅尔特林α-/-和梅尔特林β-/-小鼠的分析，我们得出结论，这些ADAM蛋白确实参与了体内的肌肉发生。

Coordinated development of multi-cellular organisms depends on intercellular communications and adhesions. Our research has been focused on identification of membrane proteins participating such cell-cell interactions during myogenesis. Inititially, we made a cDNA library of mRNA prepared from fusing muscle cells, which was subtracted with mRNA of myoblasts. From the screening of this library, we could identify a couple of novel membrane proteins. We are now trying to know functions of these proteins in myogenesis. We also succeeded to isolate a number of monoclonal antibodies from fusing muscle cells. Finally we studied roles of ADAM proteases in myogenesis, which we had cloned as membrane proteins activated by myogenic transcription factors. Based on the analyses of Meltrin α -/- and Meltrin β -/- mice, we concluded that these ADAM proteins indeed participate in myogenesis in vivo.