Congratulations to Yoel H. Sitbon, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Szczesna-Cordary for having his recent article, “Ablation of the N-terminus of cardiac essential light chain promotes the super-relaxed state of myosin and counteracts hypercontractility in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutant mice” accepted for publication in The FEBS Journal.
The article explores a new role for the N-terminus of cardiac ELC (N-ELC) that can modulate myosin cross-bridge function in the healthy as well as in HCM myocardium. The study shows that the N-ELC truncation in Tg-Δ43 mice leads to physiologic-like hypertrophy by promoting the SRX sequestered state of cardiac myosin and this deletion of N-ELC counteracts the A57G-mediated hypercontractile cross-bridge behavior. In other words, cardiac N-ELC may work as a molecular linker and/or energetic switch of the actin-myosin interaction, and as such could be targeted therapeutically to modify the proportion of myosin heads readily available for the interaction with actin, power stroke execution and force production in cardiac muscle.
We wish Yoel all the best with his graduate research career !!