This proposal is concerned with two members of the TGF-b superfamily isolated by the investigator, GDF-8 and GDF-11. GDF-8 is expressed almost exclusively in developing and adult skeletal muscle and null mutant mice show a massive and widespread increase in skeletal muscle growth. There are six aims to investigate the biological functions of GDF-8 and GDF-11.
The first aim i s to characterize the expression patterns at the RNA and protein level of GDF-8 and GDF-11. This has already been achieved for GDF-8 transcripts.
The second aim i s to characterize the phenotypes of the GDF-8 and GDF-11 null mice. The third specific aim is to purify the proteins from mammalian cells and determine the interaction between the various processed forms.
The fourth aim i s to determine the distribution of the GDF-8 and GDF-11 receptors. The fifth aim is to test the function of GDF-8 and GDF-11 protein on cultured cells to test the hypothesis that GDF-8 acts as an inhibitor of myoblast proliferation.
The final aim i s to clone the genes for the GDF-8 and GDF-11 receptors.
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