Description
Bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) function in virtually all tissues with cell-type specific outcomes. Since there are a relatively small number of BMP receptors this exquisite signaling specificity requires additional molecules to regulate the output of this pathway. We demonstrated that the receptor tyrosine kinase MuSK that is selectively expressed in muscle and plays a critical role in synapse formation and maintenance binds to BMP4 and related BMPs. Since BMPs regulate the transcription of a set of genes, we performed microarrays for wild-type and MuSK null muscle cells to test if MuSK regulates BMP responses in muscle cells.