Defective sarcomere organization and reduced larval locomotion and fish survival in slow muscle heavy chain 1 (smyhc1) mutants.

ABSTRACT: Zebrafish skeletal muscles are broadly divided into slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers. The slow fibers, which express a slow fiber-specific myosin heavy chain 1 (Smyhc1), are the first group of muscle fibers formed during myogenesis. To uncover Smyhc1 function in muscle growth, we generated three mutant alleles with reading frame shift mutations in the zebrafish smyhc1 gene using CRISPR. The mutants showed shortened sarcomeres with no thick filaments and M-lines in slow fibers of the mutant embryos. However, the formation of slow muscle precursors and expression of other slow muscle genes were not affected and fast muscles appeared normal. The smyhc1 mutant embryos and larvae showed reduced locomotion and food intake. The mutant larvae exhibited increased lethality of incomplete pe

SUBMITTER: Li S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6956737 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature