The Known MyoD Enhancers are Largely Dispensable for Proper Embryonic Expression and Cells of the MyoD Expressing Lineage are Multipotent in the Trunk but Not the Limbs of Amyogenic Embryos

TL;DRAbstract

In the developing vertebrate embryo, multipotent cells of the paraxial mesoderm form epithelial spheres called somites that physically define the segmentation pattern of the embryo. MyoD is transcribed in the myogenic precursor cells of the developing somite and is essential for proper hypaxial muscle formation. Whether MyoD is a determination factor or downstream member of the myogenic program had yet to be shown and the cis-transcriptional control of this important gene was incompletely defined.\nBy permanently labeling cells that have transcribed the MyoD locus in MyoD-/-/Myf-5-/- embryos, where myogenesis does not occur, the determination state of presumptive myoblasts has been revealed. Previous studies used a temporary cell labeling system and suggested that in MyoD-/-/Myf-5-/- embryos, cells of the MyoD lineage apoptose and do not contribute to other cell types. This suggests that the MyoD lineage is committed to myogenesis before myoblasts form. In the results presented herein,

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