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Published online 14 November 2005. doi:10.1083/jcb.200503077
The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525 $8.00
JCB, Volume 171, Number 4, 695-704
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Article

 Evolution of skeletal type e–c coupling : a novel means of controlling calcium delivery



Valentina Di Biase1,2 and Clara Franzini-Armstrong1

1 Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
2 Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, Innsbruck Medical University, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Correspondence to Valentina Di Biase: Valentina.Di-Biase{at}uibk.ac.at

The functional separation between skeletal and cardiac muscles, which occurs at the threshold between vertebrates and invertebrates, involves the evolution of separate contractile and control proteins for the two types of striated muscles, as well as separate mechanisms of contractile activation. The functional link between electrical excitation of the surface membrane and activation of the contractile material (known as excitation–contraction [e–c] coupling) requires the interaction between a voltage sensor in the surface membrane, the dihydropyridine receptor (DHPR), and a calcium release channel in the sarcoplasmic reticulum, the ryanodine receptor (RyR). Skeletal and cardiac muscles have different isoforms of the two proteins and present two structurally and functionally distinct modes of interaction.

We use structural clues to trace the evolution of the dichotomy from a single, generic type of e–c coupling to a diversified system involving a novel mechanism for skeletal muscle activation. Our results show that a significant structural transition marks the protochordate to the Craniate evolutionary step, with the appearance of skeletal muscle–specific RyR and DHPR isoforms.

Abbreviations used in this paper: CRU, calcium release unit; DHPR, dihydropyridine receptor; e–c, excitation–contraction; jSR, junctional SR; RyR, ryanodine receptor; SR, sarcoplasmic reticulum; T, transverse.


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