Atrial Light Chain-1 (ALC-1), also known as Essential Light Chain, Atrial is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MYL4 gene. ALC-1 is expressed in fetal cardiac ventricular and fetal skeletal muscle, as well as fetal and adult cardiac atrial tissue. ALC-1 expression is reactivated in human ventricular myocardium in various cardiac muscle diseases, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, ischemic cardiomyopathy and congenital heart diseases. ALC-1 is expressed very early in skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle development; two E-boxes and CArG box in the MYL4 promoter region regulate transcription. ALC-1 expression in cardiac ventricles decreases in early postnatal development, but is highly expressed in atria throughout all of adulthood. Normal atrial function is essential for embryogenesis, as inactivation of the MYL7 gene was embryonic lethal at ED10.5-11.5. Evidence of ALC-1 isoform expression on contractile mechanics of sarcomeres came from experiments studying fibers from patients expressing a higher level of ALC-1 relative to VLC-1 in cardiac left ventricular tissue.