Skeletal muscle consists predominantly of muscle fibers surrounded by a connective tissue layer. This tissue has a great plasticity, and the knowledge of the morphological characteristics, myogenesis, and growth dynamics is important to the understanding of its physiology and to the farm animal selection for meat production. Most skeletal muscles are derived from mesodermal precursor cells originated from the somites. During embryonic development, specification of mesodermal precursor cells to the myogenic lineage is regulated by positive and negative signals from surrounding tissues. Specification to the myogenic lineage requires the up-regulation of four muscle-specific transcriptional factors (MyoD, Myf5, myogenin, and MRF4), called myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs), which have a well-defined role in skeletal muscle development and differentiation. The MRFs belong to the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) super family of transcription factors, that forms heterodimers and bind to the E-box (CANNTG) DNA sequence motif found in the promoters of many muscle specific genes. Specification to the myogenic lineage requires the up-regulation of the MRFs MyoD and Myf5. Proliferative MyoD and/or Myf5 positive myogenic cells are termed myoblasts. Proliferating myoblasts withdraw from the cell cycle to become terminally differentiated myocytes that express the "late" MRFs, myogenin and MRF4. Specialized populations of myogenic stem cells, termed satellite cells, arise during the late stages of embryogenesis are highly active during the postnatal muscle growth, which may occur by muscle fiber hyperplasia or hypertrophy. Quiescent satellite cells do not express detectable levels of MRF; however, during muscle growth, in response to several growth factors, activated satellite cells proliferate and express the MRFs in a similar manner to muscle precursor cells during skeletal muscle development. Muscle growth mechanisms are controlled by the temporally expression of muscle growth related genes induced by the MRFs.
muscle development and growth; myogenic regulatory factors; skeletal muscle
