Do muscle founder cells exist in vertebrates?
- Authors
- Powell, G.T., and Wright, G.J.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-120702-25
- Date
- 2012
- Source
- Trends in cell biology 22(8): 391-396 (Other)
- Registered Authors
- Powell, Gareth, Wright, Gavin J.
- Keywords
- myocyte fusion, founder cells, cell surface receptors, zebrafish, Drosophilia, mouse, jamb, jamc, kirrel, dock1, rac
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Cell Adhesion Molecules/metabolism
- Cell Fusion
- Cytoplasm/metabolism
- Humans
- Muscle, Skeletal/cytology*
- Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism
- Phenotype
- Vertebrates*/metabolism
- PubMed
- 22710008 Full text @ Trends Cell Biol.
Skeletal muscle is formed by the iterative fusion of precursor cells (myocytes) into long multinuclear fibres. Extensive studies of fusion in Drosophila embryos have lead to a paradigm in which myoblasts are divided into two distinct subtypes – founder and fusion-competent myoblasts (FCMs) – that can fuse to each other, but not among themselves. Only founder cells can direct the formation of muscle fibres, while FCMs act as a cellular substrate. Recent studies in zebrafish and mice have demonstrated conservation of the molecules originally identified in Drosophila, but an important question remains: is vertebrate fusion regulated by specifying myocyte subtypes? Stated simply: do vertebrate founder cells exist? In light of recent findings, we argue that a different regulatory mechanism has evolved in vertebrates.