Lecture 3 - Muscle Pioneer Cells Flashcards
What are the advantages of using Zebrafish as a model system?
- Embryos develop outside of the mother, easier to do fate mapping
- Fast development
- Translusent (good for Ab staining)
- Good genetic model, lots of mutant lines available
- accessible for drug treatment
What are the two distinct fibre types present in skeletal muscle?
Fast twitch
Slow twitch
What are the embryonic origins of fast and slow twitch muscle?
Fast:
Slow
How was the origin of slow and fast muscle precursor lineages deciphered?
Firstly…
Describe the shh signalling pathway
- The receptor of hedgehod is patched, which sits in a complex in the membrane which repressed smoothened. Hh binding to ptc removes the repression of smoothened
- Smoothened is activated and initiates a signal transduction pathway. This involves Fu Kinase which represses Su(Fu) in a complex with Gli/Ci proteins
- Gli/Ci is no longer processed to the short inactive form and the long form of Gli/Ci moves to the nucleus to act as a transcriptional activator of hedgehog target genes (engrailed and ptc)
What data support the concept that shh is critical for the establishment of the distinct muscle lineages in the zebrafish myotome?
a.
How can you demonstrate the pattern of muscle fibre types in mice
Stain adult mouse tissue e.g. leg, with antibodies specific for different isoforms of myosin heavy chains
What are the contraction patterns of the different types of muscle fibres?
Fast myosin: product fast twich contractions
Slow myosin: slow, sustained contractions
How are the fast and slow muscle fibres physiologically distinct?
- S: slow, sustained contractions; F: fast contractions
- Different metabolic rates
- different metabolism
- different innervations
How does the distribution of the different muscle fibre types differ between mice and zebrafish?
In fish, the different muscle types are separated, not mixed up as they are in the mouse.
In zebrafish, how can the slow and fast muscle fibres be unambiguously distinguished?
By immunolabelling
Where do adaxial cells form?
Adaxial cells for adjacent to the notochord
What do adaxial cells give rise to ?
Adaxial cells give rise to slow muscle fibres
Most slow muscle cells become superficial slow fibres, but a few become muscle pioneer cells
In zebrafish, where is myoD expressed?
MyoD is expressed in adaxial cells
When is myoD expression turned on in zebrafish?
MyoD expression is turned on before somitogensis in adaxial cells and later in more lateral cells as the somites form
What is the neural plate called in fish
Neural keel
What cells are adjacent to the adaxial cells in fish?
Notochord and looser lateral plate cells
How are muscle projenitors distinguished into fast and slow myofribres?
- Adaxial cells form slow muscle
- Some remain medial and form the muscle pioneer cells
- Most migrate radially away from the notochord to form the superficial slow fibres on the most lateral part of the somite
How was the migration of the adaxial cells visualised?
Transverse sections through the posterior trunk were immunolabelled with an antibody to mark slow muscle (adaxial) cells and counter saided with Hoechst to reveal nuclei
How long does the mugration of the adaxial cells takes?
5 hours
Aside from a progression over time, how else might developmental figures be interpreted?
Shown as sections posterior to anterior as Anterior sections are more developmentally advanced
How might slow cells be immunolabelled?
Ab against Prox1 protein
Prox1 (has a homeobox - DNA binding domain) and so will stain in the nucleus of the cell
Or against slow muscle myocin heavy chain - stains in the cytoplasm
Also need to mark all nuclei (DAPI - nuclear chromatin staining)
How can medial fast fibres be labelled?
Immunostaining for engrailed (red)
Need to ensure not also slow muscle heavy chain or Prox1 positive
How can muscle pioneer cells be labelled?
Immunostaining with Engrailed, and Prox1
The engrailed rxpressing cells that are also positive for prox1 are muscle pioneer cells