RUI: The Role of Myosin Heads in Muscle Assembly

肌球蛋白头在肌球蛋白和肌节形成过程中的作用 大会将进行调查。 正在进行的工作表明， 缺乏杆状序列的肌球蛋白头的表达破坏了肌节 线虫中的组织，秀丽隐杆线虫。 实验 被提出来定义肌球蛋白头部的区域， 肌肉破坏效应，并确定截断的门 肌球蛋白分子。 表达全长的转基因线虫 将产生肌球蛋白或肌球蛋白头片段。 运动性和 对照组和实验组的肌肉超微结构缺陷 将比较转基因蠕虫。 最小的肌球蛋白片段 其破坏肌肉组织。 %%% 肌肉组织的收缩机制包括两个主要的 蛋白质，肌球蛋白和肌动蛋白，这是安排（沿着与其他 辅助蛋白）在密集包装，高度有序的阵列，称为 肌节，这样肌球蛋白分子的线性阵列（ 收缩运动的“马达”，它转换化学能 转化为机械能）沿着沿着肌动蛋白丝（ “轨道”），导致肌节缩短（因此 肌肉本身）。 该项目关注的是 收缩器官中的肌球蛋白分子。 基因操纵的力量将被用来 肌球蛋白分子在特定位置发生突变的线虫 网站，以确定这些特定的功能后果 突变。 了解结构要求， 收缩机械装配是必要的先决条件， 生物分子马达的生物技术应用。 鉴于 整个动物肌球蛋白之间的高度保守性 王国，预计用线虫获得的结果 模型系统将普遍适用于其他动物。

The role of myosin heads in the process of myosin and sarcomere assembly will be investigated. Work in progress indicates that expression of myosin heads lacking rod sequence disrupts sarcomere organization in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. Experiments are proposed to define regions of the myosin head responsible for the muscle-disruptive effect and to determine the gate of truncated myosin molecules. Transgenic nematodes expressing full-length myosin or myosin head fragments will be produced. The motility and muscle ultrastructural defects of control and experimental transgenic worms will be compared. The smallest myosin fragment which disrupts muscle organization will be characterized. %%% The contractile mechanism of muscle tissue consists of two major proteins, myosin and actin, which are arranged (along with other auxiliary proteins) in densely packed, highly ordered arrays termed sarcomeres, such that linear arrays of myosin molecules (the "motor" for contractile movement, which transduces chemical energy into mechanical energy) move along actin filaments (which serve as the "track"), resulting in shortening of the sarcomere (and hence of the muscle itself). This project is concerned with the role of the myosin molecules in the assembly of the contractile apparatus. The power of genetic manipulations will be employed to engineer nematodes with myosin molecules bearing mutations at specific sites, to determine the functional consequence of these specific mutations. An understanding of the structural requirements for contractile machinery assembly is a necessary prerequisite to biotechnological applications of biomolecular motors. Given the high degree of conservation among myosins throughout the animal kingdom, it is expected that the results obtained with the nematode model system will be generally applicable to other animals.