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The microprotein Minion controls cell fusion and muscle formation
Open accessAbstract
Although recent evidence has pointed to the existence of small open reading frame (smORF)-encoded microproteins in mammals, their function remains to be determined. Skeletal muscle development requires fusion of mononuclear progenitors to form multinucleated myotubes, a critical but poorly understood process. Here we report the identification of Minion (microprotein inducer of fusion), a smORF encoding an essential skeletal muscle specific microprotein. Myogenic progenitors lacking Minion differentiate normally but fail to form syncytial myotubes, and Minion-deficient mice die perinatally and demonstrate a marked reduction in fused muscle fibres. The fusogenic activity of Minion is conserved in the human orthologue, and co-expression of Minion and the transmembrane protein Myomaker is sufficient to induce cellular fusion accompanied by rapid cytoskeletal rearrangement, even in non-muscle cells. These findings establish Minion as a novel microprotein required for muscle development, and define a two-component programme for the induction of mammalian cell fusion. Moreover, these data also significantly expand the known functions of smORF-encoded microproteins.
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Metadata
- Authors
- Zhang, Q., Vashisht, A. A., O’Rourke, J., Corbel, S. Y., Moran, R., Romero, A., Miraglia, L., Zhang, J., Durrant, E., Schmedt, C., Sampath, S. C., & Sampath, S. C.
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2017-06-01
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 15664-15664
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2951162249
- Cited by
- 267
- References
- 40
- FWCI
- 10.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
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- Zhang, Q., Vashisht, A. A., O’Rourke, J., Corbel, S. Y., Moran, R., Romero, A., Miraglia, L., Zhang, J., Durrant, E., Schmedt, C., Sampath, S. C., & Sampath, S. C. (2017). The microprotein Minion controls cell fusion and muscle formation. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15664
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