We are working in three areas. The first focuses on the mechanisms that coordinate contractile protein expression in striated muscle. A variety of approaches, including comparative genomics, cDNA analysis, PCR, and genetic/biochemical analyses of expression in transgenic mice and C. elegans mutants are being used to define the how the expression of different thin filament proteins is coordinated and how the accumulation of thick and thin filament proteins is regulated. As models, we study the troponin-tropomyosin thin filament calcium regulatory complex of mammalian skeletal muscle and uncoordinated mutants of the nematode C. elegans whose phenotypes are consistent with disproportionate synthesis of thick and thin filament proteins.
