1/30/97

Contacts:
Ted Huiatt, Biochemistry & Biophysics, 515/294-8289
Susan Anderson, Agriculture Information, 515/294-0705

PROTEIN RESEARCH MAY PROVIDE MUSCLE DISEASE ANSWERS

AMES, Iowa -- Research at Iowa State University is helping scientists gain a better understanding of how a major muscle protein functions, with the ultimate goal of using this knowledge to combat muscle diseases.

Ted Huiatt is an associate professor of biochemistry and animal science. For more than a decade, he has been studying a muscle protein called titin. Titin was discovered in 1979 and is now recognized as a major contributor to muscle function and structure.

Many questions remain about the role of titin. It's known to be important to the development of myofibrils -- the protein threads responsible for muscle contraction and movement. But Huiatt's work is attempting to uncover more information about why titin is important.

"It's like a mechanic working on your car," Huiatt says. "He has to understand how the car works before he can figure out what's wrong and how to fix it."

Much of the research in Huiatt's lab has been geared to learning how titin works. "During embryonic development, muscle proteins are 'turned on' and the eventual result is a myofibril," he says. "Some work has shown titin may act as a sort of scaffold to help pull together the other muscle proteins."

Huiatt says if this muscle assembly process is disrupted, the result is muscle disease.

Huiatt has worked with chicken muscles because, as he says, "chicken embryo cell structures come nicely packaged as eggs."

His lab has isolated the DNA molecule that provides the structure for titin in chickens. Using biotechnology methods, Huiatt is now trying to alter the expression of titin in these cells. "If we can create too much titin, or block the development of titin, we may be able to alter the function of titin in the muscle cells," he says. "Then perhaps we can learn how changes in titin impact muscle development."

Huiatt collaborates with others in the Muscle Biology and Meat Science groups at ISU. For instance, collaborative studies have contributed to a better understanding of how titin breaks down, which could impact meat tenderness.

"We have generated a group of antibodies to follow titin around to see how it functions," he says. "There is still much to learn about how titin functions, how it's produced, where it goes once it's produced, and how we can direct it to where it's needed."

The Muscular Dystrophy Association has provided two grants to support Huiatt's research on titin, with the most recent being nearly $130,000 over a three-year period.

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