The human cardiac and skeletal muscle proteomes defined by transcriptomics and antibody-based profiling

To understand cardiac and skeletal muscle function, it is important to define and explore their molecular constituents to identify similarities and differences in gene expression patterns between these different striated muscle tissues. In an effort driven by scientists from the Human Protein Atlas and colleagues, the genes and proteins with elevated expression in cardiac and skeletal muscle in relation to all other major human tissues and organs were investigate using a global transcriptomics analysis complemented with antibody-based profiling.

The study identified a comprehensive list of genes expressed in cardiac and skeletal muscle. Genes with elevated expression were further stratified according to their global expression pattern across the human body as well as their precise localization in the muscle tissues.

The functions encoded by the elevated genes are well in line with the physiological functions of cardiac and skeletal muscle, such as contraction, ion transport, regulation of membrane potential and actomyosin structure organization. A large fraction of the transcripts in both cardiac and skeletal muscle correspond to mitochondrial proteins involved in energy metabolism, which demonstrates the extreme specialization of these muscle tissues to provide energy for contraction.

The study provides a comprehensive list of genes and proteins elevated in striated muscles and include a number of proteins not previously characterized in cardiac and skeletal muscle. These "novel" proteins represent an interesting starting point for further functional analysis of their role in muscle biology and disease.

Visit the human heart proteome knowledge page.

Read the full analysis of the human heart proteome here.