The expression of vigilin was followed during chick embryonal development by in situ hybridization. Vigilin mRNA is abundantly expressed in tissues of mesenchymal and ectomesenchymal origin. The mesenchymal primordial cells of cartilage and bone did not show any significant expression of vigilin. As tissue differentiation proceeded, vigilin mRNA levels increased in hyaline cartilage and in both endochondral as well as intramembranous bone. The results suggest that the expression of vigilin mRNA in cartilage- and bone-forming cells, chondrocytes and osteoblasts, is dependent on the stage of development and cellular differentiation, although not a unique process of bone formation. Most striking is the correlation of the maximum vigilin mRNA expression in osteoblasts and hypertrophic chondrocytes to periods when cell-specific genes were highly transcribed and substantially translated, e.g., synthesis of procollagen and formation of extracellular matrix in bone and cartilage.