Positional signals: evidence for a possible role in muscle fibre-type patterning of the embryonic avian limb

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Abstract Current evidence favours the hypothesis that avian muscle fibre-type differentiation is intrinsically programmed during early embryogenesis and proceeds independent of neuronal influences (for review, Miller & Stockdale, 1987; Sanes, 1987). Previous interspecific (chick/quail) and intraspecific (chick/chick) chimaeric studies, involving the heterotopic transplantation of unsegmented somitic mesoderm, indicate that the ability of premyogenic cells to form specific limb muscles is determined by positional cues operative in the host embryo. To determine if similar influences are associated with embryonic fibre-type differentiation, the limb musculature of intraspecific (chick/chick) chimaeras was assessed using differential myosin-ATPase activity. The limb musculature analysed histochemically was derived from donor unsegmented thoracic somitic mesoderm transplanted to replace extirpated brachial somites of a host embryo at 48 –52 h in ovo. Our results demonstrated that (1) the donor tissue formed, on schedule, an appropriate brachial musculature and (2) the experimental muscles duplicated the fibre-type patterning characteristic of control muscles. Thus, our data suggest that an extramyogenic, non-neural factor(s) operative in the host limb-forming region is associated with both muscle pattern formation and muscle fibre-type pattern formation. Whether or not the same putative factor(s) influences both processes remains to be determined.