Department of Molecular Biology and Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Department of Genetics.
J Clin Invest. 2022 Jun 1;132(11). doi: 10.1172/JCI159002.
Skeletal muscle fibers contain hundreds of nuclei, which increase the overall transcriptional activity of the tissue and perform specialized functions. Multinucleation occurs through myoblast fusion, mediated by the muscle fusogens Myomaker (MYMK) and Myomixer (MYMX). We describe a human pedigree harboring a recessive truncating variant of the MYMX gene that eliminates an evolutionarily conserved extracellular hydrophobic domain of MYMX, thereby impairing fusogenic activity. Homozygosity of this human variant resulted in a spectrum of abnormalities that mimicked the clinical presentation of Carey-Fineman-Ziter syndrome (CFZS), caused by hypomorphic MYMK variants. Myoblasts generated from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells displayed defective fusion, and mice bearing the human MYMX variant died perinatally due to muscle abnormalities. In vitro assays showed that the human MYMX variant conferred minimal cell-cell fusogenicity, which could be restored with CRISPR/Cas9-mediated base editing, thus providing therapeutic potential for this disorder. Our findings identify MYMX as a recessive, monogenic human disease gene involved in CFZS, and provide new insights into the contribution of myoblast fusion to neuromuscular diseases.
骨骼肌纤维包含数百个核,这些核增加了组织的整体转录活性,并执行专门的功能。多核形成通过成肌细胞融合来实现,由肌肉融合蛋白 Myomaker(MYMK)和 Myomixer(MYMX)介导。我们描述了一个携带有 MYMX 基因隐性截断变体的人类家系,该变体消除了 MYMX 的一个进化上保守的细胞外疏水结构域,从而损害了融合活性。这种人类变体的纯合性导致了一系列异常,类似于由 MYMK 变体功能降低引起的 Carey-Fineman-Ziter 综合征(CFZS)的临床表现。源自患者衍生的诱导多能干细胞的成肌细胞显示出融合缺陷,并且携带人类 MYMX 变体的小鼠由于肌肉异常而在围产期死亡。体外测定表明,人类 MYMX 变体的细胞间融合活性最小,可通过 CRISPR/Cas9 介导的碱基编辑恢复,从而为该疾病提供了治疗潜力。我们的研究结果确定了 MYMX 是参与 CFZS 的隐性单基因人类疾病基因,并为成肌细胞融合对神经肌肉疾病的贡献提供了新的见解。