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The Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-87 protein is essential for maintenance, but not assembly, of bodywall muscle

Mutations in the unc-87 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans cause disorganization of the myofilament lattice in adult bodywall muscle. In order to assess the organization of specific bodywall muscle components in the absence of the unc-87 gene product, we examined the bodywall muscles of mutant animals u...

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Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Rockefeller University Press 1994
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2120180/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7929572
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description Mutations in the unc-87 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans cause disorganization of the myofilament lattice in adult bodywall muscle. In order to assess the organization of specific bodywall muscle components in the absence of the unc-87 gene product, we examined the bodywall muscles of mutant animals using phalloidin and monoclonal antibodies to various muscle proteins. These studies indicated that the bodywall muscle of unc-87 embryos is initially almost wild type in its organization, but at later stages, the muscle becomes severely disorganized. To address the possibility that this disorganization is due to deterioration of the muscle as a result of contraction, we introduced into the unc-87 mutant background a mutation that decreases myosin heavy chain activity but does not substantially affect muscle structure. The improved muscle structure and motility of the double mutants are consistent with the hypothesis that at least part of the disorganization phenotype of unc-87 mutants is a consequence of the wild-type levels of force generated during muscle contraction. These results imply that the role of the unc-87 gene product is not in specifying organization but rather in serving as a structural component maintaining lattice integrity during and after contraction.
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spelling pubmed-21201802008-05-01 The Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-87 protein is essential for maintenance, but not assembly, of bodywall muscle J Cell Biol Articles Mutations in the unc-87 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans cause disorganization of the myofilament lattice in adult bodywall muscle. In order to assess the organization of specific bodywall muscle components in the absence of the unc-87 gene product, we examined the bodywall muscles of mutant animals using phalloidin and monoclonal antibodies to various muscle proteins. These studies indicated that the bodywall muscle of unc-87 embryos is initially almost wild type in its organization, but at later stages, the muscle becomes severely disorganized. To address the possibility that this disorganization is due to deterioration of the muscle as a result of contraction, we introduced into the unc-87 mutant background a mutation that decreases myosin heavy chain activity but does not substantially affect muscle structure. The improved muscle structure and motility of the double mutants are consistent with the hypothesis that at least part of the disorganization phenotype of unc-87 mutants is a consequence of the wild-type levels of force generated during muscle contraction. These results imply that the role of the unc-87 gene product is not in specifying organization but rather in serving as a structural component maintaining lattice integrity during and after contraction. The Rockefeller University Press 1994-10-01 /pmc/articles/PMC2120180/ /pubmed/7929572 Text en This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
spellingShingle Articles
The Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-87 protein is essential for maintenance, but not assembly, of bodywall muscle
title The Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-87 protein is essential for maintenance, but not assembly, of bodywall muscle
title_full The Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-87 protein is essential for maintenance, but not assembly, of bodywall muscle
title_fullStr The Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-87 protein is essential for maintenance, but not assembly, of bodywall muscle
title_full_unstemmed The Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-87 protein is essential for maintenance, but not assembly, of bodywall muscle
title_short The Caenorhabditis elegans UNC-87 protein is essential for maintenance, but not assembly, of bodywall muscle
title_sort caenorhabditis elegans unc-87 protein is essential for maintenance, but not assembly, of bodywall muscle
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2120180/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7929572