Investigating the Effects of Tropomyosin D230N and cTnT R92L on the Tropomyosin Overlap Region

Abstract

The progression of genetically inherited cardiomyopathies from an altered protein structure to the clinical presentation of the disease is not well understood. One of the main roadblocks to mechanistic insight remains a lack of high-resolution structural information of multiprotein complexes within the cardiac sarcomere. One example is the tropomyosin (Tm) overlap region of the thin filament that is crucial for the function of the cardiac sarcomere. To address this central question, we devised coupled experimental and computational methods to characterize the baseline function and structure of the Tm overlap, as well as the effects that mutations causing divergent patterns of ventricular remodeling have on both structure and function.