Neural regulation of myosin gene expression
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Northeastern Ohio Universities |  |
Education:
| Postdoctoral Training | Boston University School of Medicine |
| Ph.D. | Ohio University |
Professional Experience:
| 1999-present | Professor of Anatomy | Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine |
| 1991 - 1999 | Associate Professor of Anatomy | |
| 1986 - 1991 | Assistant Professor of Anatomy |
Graduate Faculty Status:
Cell and Molecular Biology; Neuroscience;
Research Interests:
The research focus of our laboratory is developmental neurobiology. We are particularly interested in the development of neurons and their regulation of contractile protein synthesis in skeletal and cardiac muscle. We are addressing scientific questions in two different systems: the muscle spindle and the heart. (1) Muscle spindles are essential for control of locomotion and posture. Intrafusal fibers, the constituent fibers of muscle spindles, express several myosin isoforms that are not expressed by extrafusal fibers in skeletal muscles. We use a variety of cellular and molecular techniques to investigate the influence of muscle cell lineages, sensory neurons and motor neurons on expression of these "spindle-specific" myosins in rats. This research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, seeks to define those factors essential for restoration of proprioception following disease or injury to skeletal muscles. (2) Recently, we received grant support from the American Heart Association for studies regarding the role of neurotrophins, trophic factors essential for the survival and differentiation of neurons, and their receptors in the development of the sympathetic innervation of the heart. We are using anatomical, molecular, biochemical and physiological approaches to study cardiac sympathetic neurogenesis and its effects on heart in several strains of transgenic mice that have targeted inactivation of neurotrophin genes or the genes for their receptors. These studies are important because the sympathetic nervous system is the major regulator of the contractile properties of the heart, and low levels of neurotrophins have been implicated as the causative agent of a set of human autonomic disorders.
Selected Publications:
- Kucera, J. and J. M. Walro. Origin of intrafusal fibers from a subset of primary myotubes in the rat. Anat. Embryol. 192:149-158 (1995).
- McWhorter, D., J. M. Walro, S. A. Signs and J. Wang. Expression of alpha-cardiac myosin heavy chain in normal and denervated rat muscle spindles. Neurosci. Lett. 200:2-4 (1995).
- Kucera, J., P. Ernfors J. M. Walro and R. Jaenisch. Reduction in the number of spinal motor neurons in neurotrophin-3 deficient mice. Neuroscience 69:321-330 (1995).
- Wang, J., D. McWhorter and J. M. Walro. Stability of myosin heavy chain isoforms in selectively denervated rat muscles. Anat. Rec. 249:32-43 (1997).
- Walro, J. M., J. Wang and G. M. Story. Afferent-inherent regulation of MHC expression in adult rat muscle spindles. Muscle and Nerve 20:1549-1560 (1997).
- Kucera, J., G. Fan, J. M. Walro, S. Copray, L. Tessarollo and R. Jaenisch. Neurotrophin-3 and trkC are nonessential for the development of mouse muscle spindles. NeuroReport 9:905-909 (1998).
- Walro, J. M. and J. Kucera. Why adult mammalian intrafusal and extrafusal fibers express different myosin heavy chain isoforms. Trends in Neuroscience (1999) (in press).
