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The Journal of Experimental Biology 204, 2097-2101 (2001)
© 2001 The Company of Biologists Limited

Red and white muscle development in the trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as shown by in situ hybridisation of fast and slow myosin heavy chain transcripts

Pierre-Yves Rescan1,*, Bertrand Collet1,2, Cecile Ralliere1, Chantal Cauty1, Jean-Marie Delalande1,2, Geoffrey Goldspink2 and Benoit Fauconneau1

1 SCRIBE-INRA, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes, France and
2 Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Royal Free Hospital and University College Medical School, Rowland Hill Street, London NW3 2PF, UK

*e-mail: rescan{at}beaulieu.rennes.inra.fr

Accepted March 22, 2001

The axial muscle of most teleost species consists of a deep bulk of fast-contracting white fibres and a superficial strip of slow-contracting red fibres. To investigate the embryological development of fast and slow muscle in trout embryos, we carried out single and double in situ hybridisation with fast and slow myosin heavy chain (MyHC)-isoform-specific riboprobes. This showed that the slow-MyHC-positive cells originate in a region of the somite close to the notochord. As the somite matures in a rostrocaudal progression, the slow-MyHC-positive cells appear to migrate radially away from the notochord to the lateral surface of the myotome, where they form the superficial strip of slow muscle. Surprisingly, the expression pattern of the fast MyHC showed that the differentiation of fast muscle commences in the medial domain of the somite before the differentiation and migration of the slow muscle precursors. Later, as the differentiation of fast muscle progressively spreads from the inside to the outside of the myotome, slow-MyHC-expressing cells become visible medially. Our observations that the initial differentiation of fast muscle takes place in proximity to axial structures and occurs before the differentiation and migration of slow muscle progenitors are not in accord with the pattern of muscle formation in teleosts previously described in the zebrafish Danio rerio, which is often used as the model organism in fishes.

Key words: myosin heavy chain, somitogenesis, muscle, differentiation, teleost, trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss.






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2001