Pulsatile Myofilament Activity in Myotrem Myopathy Associated with Myogenic Tremor

Myosin-binding protein C (MyBP-C) comprises a family of myofilament proteins that maintain sarcomeric structure and regulate actomyosin crossbridge cycling. Pathogenic variants in MYBPC1, the gene encoding the slow skeletal isoform (sMyBP-C), lead to a dominant congenital myopathy, termed Myotrem, characterized by muscle weakness, hypotonia, and a distinctive tremor of myogenic origin, in the absence of neuropathy. However, the molecular mechanism(s) of myogenic tremorgenesis is largely unknown. One potential mechanism is aberrant myofilament stretch activation, which is defined as a delayed increase in force after a rapid stretch. We utilized the Myotrem murine model harboring the pathogenic MYBPC1 E248K variant to test the hypothesis that stretch activation is augmented in permeabilized Myotrem E248K soleus fibers. We found that stretch activation was significantly increased in E248K soleus muscle fibers. Interestingly, once submaximally Ca²⁺ activated, a subpopulation of slow-twitch E248K fibers exhibited spontaneous pulsatile sarcomere oscillations. This pulsing behavior generated a sinusoidal waveform pattern in sarcomere length, which often persisted on a timescale of minutes. These results align with sMyBP-C as key regulator of the synchronous activation of myofilaments by dampening both spontaneous oscillatory activity and stretch-dependent activation. We propose that the presence of sMyBP-C-E248K disrupts this regulation, thereby driving pathogenic myogenic tremors.