Table 2.

List of gene products required for vertebrate myoblast fusion

Protein	Location and function	Animal model	Reference(s)
Adam12	Membrane Mediates myoblast adhesion Interaction with the actin-binding protein α-actinin-2 promotes myoblast fusion	Mouse	(Galliano et al., 2000; Zolkiewska, 1999)
BAI1	Membrane Mediates recognition of phosphatidylserine on apoptotic cells Regulates myoblast fusion through Dock1/Rac1 pathway	Mouse	(Hochreiter- Hufford et al., 2013)
BAI3	Membrane Interacts with the scaffold protein ELMO to regulate myoblast fusion, possibly through the ELMO/DOCK/Rac1 pathway	Chicken	(Hamoud et al., 2014)
Caveolin-3	Membrane Involved in myoblast fusion (unclear role) Contradictory fusion phenotypes in different experimental models	Mouse	(Galbiati et al., 1999; Volonte et al., 2003)
Cdc42	Cytoplasm Required for actin rearrangement at the fusion site	Mouse	(Vasyutina et al., 2009)
CKIP-1	Cytoplasm Regulates myoblast fusion by interacting with both phosphoinositides on the membrane and Arp2/3 subunit	Mouse Zebrafish	(Baas et al., 2012)
Crk Crkl	Cytoplasm Adaptor proteins Crk/Crkl genetically interact with DOCK1/DOCK5 to regulate myoblast fusion	Zebrafish	(Moore et al., 2007)
DOCK1	Cytoplasm Required for myoblast fusion by activating Rac1	Zebrafish Mouse	(Laurin et al., 2008; Moore et al., 2007)
DOCK5	Cytoplasm Functions redundantly with DOCK1 Also involved in post-fusion myofiber development	Zebrafish Mouse	(Laurin et al., 2008; Moore et al., 2007)
EHD2	Membrane and cytoplasm Regulates myoblast fusion by mediating endocytic recycling of membrane proteins, such as Myoferlin	Mouse	(Doherty et al., 2008)
Gm7325 Myomixer Minion Myomerger	Membrane Interacts with Myomaker to induce fusion Functions in cell recognition (proposed)	Mouse	(Bi et al., 2017; Quinn et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2017)
JAM-B JAM-C	Membrane Both physically interact to mediate fusion Facilitate myocytes recognition and adhesion (proposed)	Zebrafish	(Powell and Wright, 2011)
Kirrel	Membrane Required for fast muscle precursor fusion	Zebrafish	(Srinivas et al., 2007)
M-cadherin	Membrane Mediates myoblast adhesion Promotes fusion by activating the Rac1 pathway	Mouse	(Charrasse et al., 2007; 2006)
MOR23	Membrane Regulates cell adhesion during myoblast fusion	Mouse	(Griffin et al., 2009)
Myoferlin	Membrane Regulates myoblast fusion through unclear mechanism, potentially by acting as a scaffold protein that links fusion proteins with the membrane	Mouse	(Doherty et al., 2005)
Myomaker	Membrane Muscle-specific protein that induces fusion during muscle development and repair Mediate cell recognition (proposed)	Mouse Zebrafish Chicken	(Landemaine et al., 2014; Luo et al., 2015; Millay et al., 2013; Zhang and Roy, 2017)
N-WASp	Cytoplasm Required in both fusing partners	Mouse	(Gruenbaum-Cohen et al., 2012)
Rac1	Cytoplasm Required for proper recruiting of Arp2/3 to the contact site Regulates actin remodeling during fusion Unlike in Drosophila, constitutively active Rac1 in zebrafish leads to myoblasts hyperfusion	Mouse Zebrafish Chicken	(Sieiro et al., 2017; Srinivas et al., 2007; Vasyutina et al., 2009)
Stab2	Membrane Involved in the phosphatidylserine-dependent fusion of myoblasts during muscle development and regeneration	Mouse	(Park et al., 2016)
Talin 1/2	Cytoplasm Regulates myoblast fusion, potentially by mediating the interaction between integrins and cytoskeleton	Mouse	(Conti et al., 2009)
VLA4 VCAM1	Membrane VLA-4 and its counter receptor VCAM-1 are involved in secondary myogenesis	Mouse	(Rosen et al., 1992)
β-1 integrin	Membrane Involved with membrane breakdown during myoblast fusion	Mouse	(Schwander et al., 2003)