High impact information on MYH6

• Identification and characterization of a ventricular-specific avian myosin heavy chain, VMHC1: expression in differentiating cardiac and skeletal muscle [1].
• DNA sequence analysis confirmed that VMHC1 represented a novel member of the MHC gene family [1].
• Still, PCR and in situ hybridization analyses of the initial phases of cardiac and skeletal myogenic differentiation determined that VMHC1 was expressed in both progenitor populations at the initiation of myogenesis regardless of the source of myoblast or site of initial differentiation [1].
• The VMHC1 gene should provide a model for identification of transcription factors involved in cardiac myocyte differentiation [1].
• Cardiogenic induction by BMP-2, however remained incomplete, since neither Nkx2-8 nor the cardiac-restricted structural gene VMHC-1 became ectopically induced [2].

Biological context of MYH6

• Comparison of nucleotide sequences between adult V-MHC and P-MHC cDNAs revealed more than 98% homology in the 3'-untranslated (UT) portions of these genes [3].
• To investigate the initial differentiative processes of avian cardiac and skeletal myogenesis, we have isolated and characterized a molecular marker of the cardiac myocyte cell lineage, ventricular myosin heavy chain 1 (VMHC1) [1].

Anatomical context of MYH6

• These data strongly suggest the identity of P-MHC as the ventricular isoform and support the concept that expression of P-MHC mRNA is a common feature of developing as well as of all regenerating adult skeletal muscles [3].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of MYH6

• PCR analysis using gene-specific primers determined that the VMHC1 RNA is first expressed in the stage 7 cardiac primordia, much earlier than the appearance of a tubular beating heart [1].

References