ThemuscleproteinmyosinbindingproteinC(MyBPC)isalargemulti-domainproteinwhoseroleinthesarcomereiscomplexandnotyetfullyunderstood.MutationsinMyBPCarestronglyassociatedwiththeheartdiseasefamilialhypertrophiccardiomyopathy(FHC)andtheseexperimentsofnaturehaveprovidedsomeinsightintotheintricateworkingsofthisproteinintheheart.WhilesomeregionsoftheMyBPCmoleculehavebeenassignedafunctionintheregulationofmusclecontraction,theinteractionofotherregionswithvariouspartsofthemyosinmoleculeandthesarcomericproteins,actinandtitin,remainobscure.Inadditicn,severalintra-domaininteractionsbetweenadjacentMyBPCmoleculeshavebeenidentified.Althoughthebasicstructureofthemolecule(aseriesofimmunoglobulinandfibronectindomains)hasbeenelucidated,theassemblyofMyBPCinthesarcomereisatopicfordebate.ByanalysingtheMyBPCsequencewithrespecttoFHC-causingmutationsitispossibletoidentifyinpidualresiduesorregionsofeachdomainthatmaybeimportanteitherforbindingorregulation.Thisreviewlooksatthecurrentliterature,inconcertwithalignmentsandthestructuralmodelsofMyBPC,inanattempttounderstandhowFHCmutationsmayleadtothediseasestate.
