Understanding the mechanisms behind cardiac and skeletal muscle disease

Abstract

Muscle and how it functions has been studied for decades, yet the molecular mechanisms behind muscle disease are still not fully understood. This dissertation provides a collection of studies that investigate molecular mechanisms behind the muscle diseases hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), Freeman-Sheldon syndrome (FSS), as well as the muscle phenomenon stretch activation (SA). I used the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, and the main focus is the role of myosin heavy chain (MHC) in these mechanisms.