Emerging Questions About The Mechanisms That Control Muscle

Main Category: Muscular Dystrophy / ALS
Also Included In: Bones / Orthopedics
Article Date: 29 Jun 2010 - 2:00 PDT

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There are major shifts underway in understanding the physiological mechanisms that control muscle contraction, a field that has been the focus of intense research for centuries. Last September, leading muscle researchers from around the world gathered to discuss new findings, insights, and current questions in the field as part of the 63rd Symposium of the Society of General Physiologists (SGP) on "Muscle in Health and Disease."

Inspired by the SGP discussions, the latest Perspectives in General Physiology series presents key novel findings, unresolved questions, and clinical implications of essential muscle processes that are controlled by distinct and complex multiprotein macromolecular machines. The Perspectives appear in the July issue of the Journal of General Physiology.

The Perspectives are introduced by Editor Edward Pugh (University of California, Davis) and Guest Editor Robert Dirksen (University of Rochester Medical Center), and include the following contributors: Kurt Beam and Roger Bannister (University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus) discussing the DHPR-RYR1 macromolecular machine; John Solaro (University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine) and colleagues, and Richard Moss and Daniel Fitzsimons (University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health) presenting Perspectives on the control of actin-myosin interactions in striated muscle; and Jeffery Goldstein and Elizabeth McNally (The University of Chicago) providing a provocative look at the multifunctional role of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC) in skeletal muscle and how DGC defects lead to muscular dystrophy.

The purpose of the Perspectives in General Physiology series is to provide an ongoing forum where scientific questions or controversies can be discussed by experts in an open manner.

Source:
Rita Sullivan
Rockefeller University Press

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