The development of vertebrate muscle has long been a major area of research in developmental biology. During the last decade, novel technical approaches have allowed us to unravel to a large extent the mechanisms underlying muscle formation, and myogenesis has become one of the best-understood paradigms for cellular differentiation. This book concisely summarizes our current knowledge about muscle development in vertebrates, from the determination of muscle precursors to terminal differentiation. Each chapter has been written by an expert in the field, and particular emphasis has been placed on the different developmental and molecular pathways followed by the three types of vertebrate musculature - skeletal, heart and smooth muscle.
The different aspects of muscle development are considered from cellular, molecular and genetic viewpoints, and the text is supported by black/white and color illustrations. The book will appeal to those studying muscle development and muscle biology in any organism.
This lively book examines recent trends in animal product consumption and diet; reviews industry efforts, policies, and programs aimed at improving the nutritional attributes of animal products; and offers suggestions for further research. In addition, the volume reviews dietary and health recommendations from major health organizations and notes specific target levels for nutrients.
Biology of Drosophila was first published by John Wiley and Sons in 1950. Until its appearance, no central, synthesized source of biological data on Drosophila melanogaster was available, despite the fly's importance to science for three decades. Ten years in the making, it was an immediate success and remained in print for two decades. However, original copies are now very hard to find. This facsimile edition makes available to the fly community once again its most enduring work of reference.
Skeletal muscle development is perhaps one of the best understood processes at the molecular, cellular and organismal level due in large part to the fact that primary myogenic cells (myoblasts) will grow and subsequently differentiate into myotubes in culture. With the advent of reverse mouse genetics, many of the observations gained through the study of myogenic cells in vitro have been directly tested in vivo. What has emerged is a complex but cohesive story of how myogenic cells are initially specified in the vertebrate embryo and how muscle fibers ultimately achieve their respective identities (i.e. fast versus slow) to perform their function. This collection of chapters is focused on these developments. The book discusses old and new directions for the skeletal muscle field and points out directions where the field may eventually progress.
Methods in Muscle Biology is a comprehensive laboratory guide that details the methods used in the study of muscle biology. The techniques included embrace cell, developmental, and molecular biology, as well asphysiology, neurobiology, and medical research.
Muscle is the only tissue of the four basic types that make the body that can be completely ablated while allowing fetal survival. This book is a result of 25 years of research employing engineered mouse fetuses with no skeletal muscle, a model system that provides a unique opportunity to study body development holistically. A systematic anatomical analysis of such fetuses have shown that several anatomical locations are affected by the absence of the skeletal muscle. This book contains a summarized description of affected anatomical locations such as the alveolar lung epithelium, motor neurons and giant pyramidal cells in the CNS, cholinergic amacrine cells of the retina, and type I hair cells of the crista ampullaris. Several specific bioinformatics and systems biology interventions are also described. The book provides an update on skeletal muscle development, musculoskeletal developmental interactions, trophic relationships between the skeletal muscle and the motor neurons, mechanics of lung development, functional development of two special senses, eye and ear, and finally, skeletal muscle-related reasons for human fetal akinesia and its consequences. This volume in the Advances in Anatomy, Embryology and Cell Biology series stresses the need to think about the developing body and its organs in terms of their mutual interdependence, and to think about diseases, such as pulmonary hypoplasia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or cleft palate, in terms of that interdependence. Directed to developmental biologists, neuroscientists, tissue engineers and health professionals, this book exposes the ideas of interorgan communication and interdependence in homeostasis and disease.
Since the middle of the last century we have progressively built up a comprehensive descriptive model of the allied mechanisms that maintain our muscles at a size and strength appropriate to the functional demands upon them and that rapidly repair damaged muscles. This volume is an assemblage of the collective experience from the pick of major research groups investigating these aspects of muscle cell biology. It provides up-to-date coverage and presents a broad range of topics.
This volume contains the edited transcript of an interdisci plinary colloquium held at Totts Gap Medical Research Laboratories, Bangor, Pennsylvania on October 12-14, 1983 under the sponsorship of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The aim was to illuminate the pathogenic mechanism of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy through a synthesis of available data on gene expression in muscle. In the informal give and take ot the collo quium, the participants found themselves engaged in mutual education and enlightenment as they attempted to put together what is known and to highlight what is not known about the subject. Significant research into muscle as a tissue and muscle disease began only about 50 years ago although the description of muscular dystrophy by Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne de Boulogne had been published in 1862. By 1943 it was clear that Duchenne muscular dystrophy was an X-linked genetic disorder. Up to the present, however, the offending gene has not been identified although its location on the short arm of the X chromosome has been approximately determined. The gene product associated with the initial disturbance in skeletal muscle has also remained elusive up to now. Moreover, investigations into the mechanisms of the muscle degeneration have been hampered by ignorance of the fundamental phenotypic expression of the genetic disorder.
