DESCRIPTION (Taken from the applicants abstract): This is a proposal to convene an international meeting on "Molecular Biology of Muscle Development an, Disease" to be held at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California from May 21-26, 2000. The conference focuses on the induction and regulation of myogenesis in both vertebrates and invertebrates, nerve muscle interactions, and diseases of skeletal muscle. The field of skeletal muscle molecular biology has undergone enormous advances within the past several years, including the identification of transcription factors and signaling molecules that control the formation of skeletal muscle during early development, the signals that pattern this tissue into different types of musculature, the factors that control the proliferation and differentiation of skeletal muscle, the signals that regulate synapse-specific gene expression and control the formation of the neuromuscular junction. Furthermore, the last decade has seen significant advances in our understanding the molecular biology of a number of muscle pathologies, including: Duchene muscular dystrophy, Limb-Girdle muscular dystrophy, Freidrich's Ataxia, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Myotonic Dystrophy, and proximal spinal muscular atrophy. This conference will include presentations by the world's experts in each of these fields. This conference is unique in the muscle biology community at bringing together investigators studying the biology and embryology of muscle development in both vertebrate and invertebrate systems with those studying muscle pathology in disease. This conference has a 20 year history and has previously been held as a Keystone symposium, convening every three years. They have changed the venue this coming year to Asilomar, and anticipate that as in past conferences they will attract between 400-500 participants from around the globe.