Tissue Differentiation: A Personal Account of Research on Myogenesis and Cardiogenesis

Abstract

In this essay I trace my own research experience as a developmental biologist, from the study of cell differentiation in vitro to tissue formation and regeneration in vivo. Beginning with a thesis on histone modifications, I went on to study gene regulation during myogenesis, first in muscle cells in culture and then in the mouse embryo. Later, we also worked on muscle regeneration in the adult. Our work on striated muscle genes also led us into the field of cardiogenesis and characterization of cardiac progenitor cells that form the heart. Comments on the state of the art--changing concepts and the technological advances that underlie scientific progress--accompany this account, with concluding remarks about future directions.

Keywords: Cardiogensis; Cell fate choices; Gene regulation; Head and heart muscles; Mouse development; Muscle cell differentiation; Pax3 function at the onset of myogenesis; Satellite cells and muscle regeneration in the adult; Technological progress in molecular genetics; Upstream regulators of myogenesis in the embryo.