Review of the formation of a molecular basis for decreased muscle chloride conductance in the myotonic goat.
Sarah Winningham Dobbins
Health Science Biology
Department of Biology, Tennessee Technological University
Cookeville, Tennessee
Molecular basis for decreased muscle chloride conductance in the myotonic goat
Carol L. Beck, Christoph Fahlke, and Alfred L. George, Jr.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA. Vol. 93, p. 11248-11252.
October 1996.
The authors in this article set out to isolate a cause for myotonia in the myotonic goat. Myotonia is a condition in which the muscles of an organism experience delayed relaxation, and is caused by decreased chloride conductance in the muscle cell membrane. Messenger RNA was isolated from the goat’s skeletal muscle tissue, and DNA was produced from the mRNA. Tests were performed on the DNA to determine the conformational structure and potential mutations on the strand. Four missense mutations were found and determined to be the cause of the myotonia; thus, the original objective was achieved.
a. The article is clear and consistent, and explains very well the methods, reasons, and logic behind decisions.
b. The title represents the article as a whole very well.
c. The introduction accurately leads the reader into the objective of the experiment, and effectively informs the reader of the reasons behind the research.
d. There are thirteen citations in the introduction, and they are supportive of the objective statement.
e. The objective statement is very thorough; it explains the research done on the myotonic goat up to that point. It is also very specific, in that the statement describes exactly what muscle chloride channel and nucleotides are involved in the myotonia.
f. The methods and materials section is very well organized, allowing the reader to follow the experiment procedure by procedure. The entire section is well-documented and refers often to other works.
g. The experiment could be repeated with this article; each procedure is carefully detailed in the specific steps taken to reach the end.
h. The results section follows the methods and materials section fairly well; the reader is able to logically follow the steps in the procedure while gaining other information about the experiment simultaneously.
i. The results section is easy to follow and understand, to the point of the reader’s experience. The data and subject matter is very technical; without proper background understanding the article would be extremely difficult.
j. The graphics are certainly necessary; the charts signify the data well, and the Northern blot and electrophoresis pictures help the reader picture the authors’ descriptions.
k. The discussion summarizes the results well, however, the authors compare the myotonia in goats to myotonia in humans which was not addressed elsewhere in the article. Nevertheless, that application is pertinent and interesting.
l. Many of the works cited in the discussion are the same works as used in the Introduction with a few exceptions.
m. References cited in the discussion do agree with the results.
n. The objective was met in this experiment; the researchers obtained clear results for the problem described.
o. The journals cited were reputable sources; however, several dated back to the 1960s and 70s and were not recent.
The paper was well-written and relatively easy to follow; however, without proper background in this subject area, a good understanding of the article would be difficult.
There are no significant problems with this article; some references are out of date, but as a whole, the article is well-written and pertinent to the researchers’ subject area.
This finding in physiology and genetics will benefit not only those who are interested in the myotonia of animals, but also those who are concerned with researching, diagnosing, and treating similar defects in humans.
Although the article was primarily physiological, it relied heavily on genetics and resulted in a genetically-based solution to the objective. The article did address aspects of human physiology and pathology, but as a whole the article answered more questions than it generated.