The Structural Basis for the Control of Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle by the Troponin Complex

Funding Activity

Website
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/434220

Funding Status
Closed

Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the .

Funded Activity Summary

Many key physiological processes are controlled by large, multi-protein complexes. These molecular machines ensure that signals transmitted in the body are correctly interpreted and amplified so as to control key body functions. The Troponin protein complex is one such large multi-protein complex which is the switch used to control both heart and skeletal muscle contraction in the body. The Troponin complex responds to increasing cellular calcium levels, switching the muscle on at high calcium. When calcium returns to its normal basal level, the Troponin complex switches the muscle off. Naturally occurring genetic errors can lead to the malfunction of the Troponin complex. This, in turn, can lead to severe and possibly fatal diseases of the heart and muscle systems. To gain an understanding of these molecular diseases, it is important to understand the structure, dynamics and function of the Troponin complex. This project will use a newly-developed magnetic resonance method to monitor changes in the Troponin structure as a function of calcium level. Each component of the Troponin complex will be labeled with magnetic tags, allowing the determination of both structure and dynamics of Troponin, both in solution and in active muscle fibres. The study will result in a molecular understanding of how the Troponin switch works. This will give great insight in how mutations result in cardiac and muscular diseases.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2007

End Date: 01-01-2009

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $369,003.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Biological Physics

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Cardiomyopathy | Dilated Cardiomyopathy | Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy | Myocardial Ischaemia | Myopathy | electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy | muscle contraction | protein structure | site directed mutagenesis | troponin

Related Links