Fishing out proteins that bind to titin

Abstract

Another giant protein has been detected in cross-striated muscle cells. Given the name obscurin, it was discovered in a yeast two-hybrid screen in which the bait was a small region of titin that is localized near the Z-band. Obscurin is about 720 kD, similar in molecular weight to nebulin, but present at about one tenth the level (Young et al., 2001). Like titin, obscurin contains multiple immunoglobulin-like domains linked in tandem, but in contrast to titin it contains just two fibronectin-like domains. It also contains sequences that suggest obscurin may have roles in signal transduction. During embryonic development, its localization changes from the Z-band to the M-band. With these intriguing properties, obscurin may not remain obscure for long.