Control of muscle formation by the fusogenic micropeptide myomixer

Pengpeng Bi, Andres Ramirez-Martinez, Hui Li, Jessica Cannavino, John R. McAnally, John M. Shelton, Efrain Sánchez-Ortiz, Rhonda Bassel-Duby, Eric N. Olson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

249 Scopus citations

Abstract

Skeletal muscle formation occurs through fusion of myoblasts to form multinucleated myofibers. From a genome-wide clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) loss-of-function screen for genes required for myoblast fusion and myogenesis, we discovered an 84-amino acid muscle-specific peptide that we call Myomixer. Myomixer expression coincides with myoblast differentiation and is essential for fusion and skeletal muscle formation during embryogenesis. Myomixer localizes to the plasma membrane, where it promotes myoblast fusion and associates with Myomaker, a fusogenic membrane protein. Myomixer together with Myomaker can also induce fibroblast-fibroblast fusion and fibroblast-myoblast fusion.We conclude that the Myomixer-Myomaker pair controls the critical step in myofiber formation during muscle development.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)323-327
Number of pages5
JournalScience
Volume356
Issue number6335
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 21 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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