How do MYBPC3 mutations cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy?

It is well established that mutations are the most common cause of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, accounting for about half of identified mutations. However, when compared with mutations in other myofibrillar proteins that cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, mutations seem to be the odd one out. The most striking characteristic of HCM mutations in is that many are within introns and are predicted to cause aberrant splicing leading to a frameshift and a premature chain termination, yet the truncated peptides have never been identified in human heart tissue carrying these mutations. Instead of expression of a poison peptide we consistently observe haploinsufficiency of MyBP-C in mutant human heart muscle. In this review we investigate the mechanism for MyBP-C haploinsufficiency and consider how this haploinsufficiency could cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.