The present disclosure encompasses nucleic acid expression constructs that regulate the expression of a heterologous protein specifically in muscle tissues (e.g., skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle tissue). In particular embodiments of the disclosure, muscle-specific expression constructs are described that encode a heterologous protein. These heterologous proteins can be any protein that is desired to be expressed in a muscle cell. In particular embodiments of the disclosure, proteins are described for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (e.g., engineered nucleases such as engineered meganucleases).