The giant protein titin as an integrator of myocyte signaling pathways.

The giant muscle protein titin, the "backbone" of the sarcomere, harbors a complex molecular spring whose stiffness is variably tuned in health and disease. Titin is increasingly recognized as a crucial integrator of diverse myocyte signaling pathways. The titin-associated signalosome includes hotspots of protein-protein interactions important for the regulation of protein quality-control mechanisms, hypertrophic gene activation, and mechanosensing.