# AVIAN MYOGENIC CELL COMMITMENT

> **NIH NIH R01** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 1991 · $217,183

## Abstract

Skeletal myogenesis results in the formation of diverse cell types
(muscle fibers) characterized by specific differences in protein
composition and function.  Diversity of skeletal muscle fibers has
generally been attributed to the influence of the central nervous
system, the assumption being that all muscle fibers form from a
single precursor cell type (myoblast) which multiplies and then
fuses to form a muscle fiber or myotube that is diversified by an
innervating motoneuron.  This hypothesis has been recently
challenged by observations of muscle fiber formation in avian
embryos.  These observations show fiber diversification in the
embryo occurs in the absence of innervation and that myoblasts
are of different types.  Myoblasts appear to be committed to
distinct fast, mixed fast/slow, and slow myogenic cell lineages,
because the progeny of an individual myoblast form only a single
type of myotube based on myosin heavy chain isoform content.
Myoblasts committed to the fast lineage form only fast myotubes;
myoblasts committed to the fast/slow lineage form only fast/slow
myotubes; and myoblasts committed to the slow lineage form only
slow myotubes.  Commitment to a particular myogenic cell
lineage is stably inherited during the period of myoblast
proliferation that precedes myotube formation.  We propose it is
the myoblasts that must carry the genetic information required to
form the diverse types of embryonic myoblasts from the quail,
chicken and mouse.  We will investigate the nature of the
commitment process in embryonic quail myoblasts of different
types, determine the migratory pathways that myogenic cells
traverse from somites to developing muscles, determine the
lineage interrelationships between myoblasts of different types
and the myoblast origin of the two waves of muscle fiber
formation that occur in the development of all vertebrates.  The
approaches include:  transfection of myoblast DNA; tracing the
migration and developmental fate of pure, cloned populations of
different myoblast types marked with fluorescent microbeads,
fluorescent vital dyes, or transfected marker genes, and
identification of myogenic cells and their progeny using
immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting with myogenic-cell
and myosin heavy chain specific monoclonal antibodies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3159354
- **Project number:** 5R01AR039320-04
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** HJD6G4D6TJY5
- **Principal Investigator:** Frank E Stockdale
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1991
- **Award amount:** $217,183
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1988-04-01 → 1993-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3159354

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3159354, AVIAN MYOGENIC CELL COMMITMENT (5R01AR039320-04). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3159354. Licensed CC0.

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