Muscular measuring stick

Nebulin acts as a measuring stick for the thin actin filaments in muscle, say Bang et al. (page 905). Longer thin filaments result in greater overlap with myosin thick filaments and thus the ability of a muscle to bear greater loads.

Distinct muscles have different biophysical properties and requirements, and the lengths of the many nebulin isoforms have been suggested to correlate with thin filament lengths in different muscles. Some attempts have been made to reduce nebulin function in culture, but what was really needed was a study in a living animal.

The team therefore used gene targeting to delete the nebulin gene in mice. Mutants were born in the expected numbers but ate little, thrived less, and died within days. Their muscles looked fine at birth but became disorganized with...