Early expression of the myogenic regulatory gene, myf-5, in precursor cells of skeletal muscle in the mouse embryo.

We have analysed by in situ hybridization the expression of myf-5, the murine homologue of the human myogenic regulatory sequence myf5, during embryogenesis in the mouse. myf-5 sequences were first detected in the earliest somites (from about 8 days p.c.) in the dermomyotome, before formation of the dermatome, myotome and sclerotome. The dermomyotome is classically considered to give rise to the precursor muscle cells of body and limb skeletal muscle. myf-5-positive cells were also detected early in the visceral arches and limb buds. In this case, as in somites, myf-5 expression precedes that of the two related myogenic regulatory sequences, myogenin and MyoD1, and indeed any other skeletal muscle marker examined to date. myf-5 is not detected at any stage in developing cardiac muscle. From 11.5 days p.c., the level of myf-5 transcripts begins to decrease to become undetectable (by in situ hybridization) from 14 days p.c. Both the appearance and disappearance of myf-5 follow the anteroposterior gradient of somite formation and maturation in the embryo. The time and place of myf-5 expression are consistent with a role in the early events of myogenic differentiation, possibly during determination of the myogenic lineage.