Skeletal muscle-specific calpain, p94, and connectin/titin: their physiological functions and relationship to limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2A.

The skeletal muscle-specific calpain homologue, p94 (also called calpain 3), is essential for normal muscle function. A mutation of the p94 gene causes limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2A (LGMD2A), which is one type of autosomal recessive inherited disease characterized by progressive muscular degeneration. In myofibrils, p94 specifically binds to connectin/titin, and the activity of p94 is probably suppressed by this binding. Thus, we postulate that a signal transduction pathway exists, involving p94 and connectin/titin to modulate functions of skeletal muscle, and LGMD2A occurs when this signalling pathway is not properly regulated by p94. LGMD2A mutants of p94 also reveal significant information on the factors that relate structure to function in this molecule.