Somatic muscle specification during embryonic and post-embryonic development in the nematode C. elegans

Wiley Interdiscip Rev Dev Biol. 2012 Mar-Apr;1(2):203-14. doi: 10.1002/wdev.15. Epub 2011 Dec 8.

Abstract

Myogenesis has proved to be a powerful paradigm for understanding cell fate specification and differentiation in many model organisms. Studies of somatic bodywall muscle (BWM) development in Caenorhabditis elegans allow us to define, with single cell resolution, the distinct hierarchies of transcriptional regulators needed for myogenesis throughout development. Although all 95 BWM cells appear uniform after differentiation, there are several different regulatory cascades employed embryonically and post-embryonically. These, in turn, are integrated into multiple extrinsic cell signaling events. The convergence of these different pathways on the key nodal point, that is the activation of the core muscle module, commits individual cells to myogenesis. Comparisons of myogenesis between C. elegans and other model systems provide insights into the evolution of contractile cell types, demonstrating the conservation of regulatory schemes for muscles throughout the animal kingdom.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Caenorhabditis elegans / embryology*
  • Caenorhabditis elegans / genetics
  • Caenorhabditis elegans / growth & development
  • Cell Lineage
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Muscle Development*
  • Muscle, Skeletal / embryology*
  • Muscle, Skeletal / growth & development
  • Muscle, Skeletal / metabolism