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Ovoid fast muscle cells (white arrow) stretch out (green arrow) after a slow muscle cell (red) moves laterally (right) over them. AMACHER/ELSEVIER

As slow-twitch muscle cells migrate through fast-twitch muscle precursor cells, they act as morphogenesis tutors, according to Clarissa Henry and Sharon Amacher (University of California, Berkeley, CA).

Fast-twitch muscle cells in zebrafish start off life as round blobs but must undergo anterio-posterior elongation to become functional myofibers. Henry and Amacher had noticed that this elongation process spreads in a medial-to-lateral wave, i.e., cells near the midline change shape first.

The authors first established that elongation required Hedgehog signaling. Transplantation experiments showed, however, that this effect was indirect. To restore fast-twitch elongation in a Hedgehog-signaling mutant, the critical ingredient was wild-type slow-twitch cells not wild-type fast-twitch cells.

In response to the Hedgehog signal, transplanted slow-twitch cells extended across the anterior–posterior width of a somite and migrated outwards from the notochord. Fast-twitch cells in their wake elongated. The effect could be relayed to other fast-twitch cells as long as the targets were in the same somite. In the wild type there are probably enough migrating cells to contact directly all of the fast-twitch cells.

Future work will show if the slow-twitch cell or its discarded extracellular matrix is acting as a scaffolding for the fast-twitch cell, or if other signals are at work. In other sites of cell migration, such as the developing limb and early embryo, there may be similar drop-offs of differentiation and morphogenesis cues.

Reference:

Henry, C.A., and S.L. Amacher. 2004. Dev. Cell. 7:917–923.[CrossRef][Medline]

William A. Wells

wellsw{at}rockefeller.edu

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This Article PDF (Full Text) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new content in the JCB Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wells, W. A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Wells, W. A. Social Bookmarking                      What's this?