Potential phasic and tonic muscles express a common set of fast and slow myosin light chains and fast tropomyosin during early development of chick embryo

We investigated the expression of myosin light chains and tropomyosin subunits during chick embryonic development of the anterior (ALD) and posterior (PLD) parts of the latissimus dorsi muscles. As early as day 8 in ovo, both muscles accumulate a common set of myosin light chains (LC) in similar ratios (LC1F: 55 per cent; LC2S: 25 per cent; LC2F: 12 per cent; LC1S: 8 per cent) and a common set of tropomyosin (TM) subunits (beta 2, beta 1, alpha 2F). Later during development, the slow components of the LC regularly disappear in the PLD and the fast components of the LC and the alpha 2FTM disappear in the ALD, so that the adult pattern is almost established at the time of hatching. Thus, early in development, the two muscles accumulate a common set of fast and slow myosin light chains and fast tropomyosin and some isoforms are repressed at a later stage during development. These data might suggest that during development, the regulatory mechanisms of muscle specific isoform expression differ from one contractile protein to another.

A new muscle phenotype is expressed by subcultured quail myoblasts isolated from future fast and slow muscles

Differentiation of quail myoblasts, isolated from thigh pectoralis and anterior latissimus dorsi muscle, was analyzed in primary cultures and in cultures obtained following repeated subculturing. Our study shows that quail myoblasts can survive many generations without losing their ability to form myotubes. However, during these subcultures the cells progressively express a new phenotype. This phenotype is characterized by a mixture of myosin light chains such that LC1F, LC2F, and LC2S are present in roughly equimolar amounts, each accounting for 25 to 30% of the total light chain synthesis while LC1S accounts for the remaining 10 to 15%, and by a mixture of fast and slow alpha tropomyosin in which alpha S accounts for 10 to 15% of the alpha subunits synthesis. Clonal analysis indicates that all cells in the population express this phenotype which is also characteristic of subcultures obtained from both future fast and slow muscles. Relationships between this phenotype and muscle development are discussed.

Fast and slow chicken skeletal muscles contain different alpha and beta tropomyosins

Avian tropomyosin has been purified from fast skeletal muscles (breast muscle and posterior latissimus dorsi : PLD) and from a slow skeletal muscle (anterior latissimus dorsi : ALD) and the alpha and beta subunits have been further separated using preparative gel electrophoresis. These subunits have been subjected to partial proteolysis using different proteolytic enzymes. In this communication we show that this procedure allows to distinguish not only between fast and slow alpha tropomyosin but also between fast and slow beta tropomyosin. Furthermore we have raised an antiserum against the fast alpha tropomyosin and we present evidence to show that this antiserum does not cross-react with the slow alpha tropomyosin. These results are taken to indicate that all these tropomyosin subunits represent different gene products.

Changes in tropomyosin during development of chick embryonic skeletal muscles in vivo and during differentiation of chick muscle cells in vitro

We have studied the changes in tropomyosin subunits and their pattern of phosphorylation during embryonic development and also during in vitro differentiation of cultured muscle cells. We have found that in 10-day-old embryos tropomyosin consists of 75% beta subunit and 25% alpha subunit. However, only 60% of the beta subunit is phosphorylated while the alpha subunit is almost exclusively present in its phosphorylated form. During subsequent development, the amount of alpha-tropomyosin increases so that by hatching it represents 50% of the total subunits. During the same time, the amount of phosphorylated variants for both the alpha and the beta subunits decreases so that after hatching they represent less than 20% of each subunit. In cultures of differentiating myoblasts, the alpha subunit is synthesized before the beta subunit, and within each subunit, the unphosphorylated variants are the first to be synthesized. The reason for this discrepancy is not known at the present time.

Characterization of the tropomyosin present in various chick embryo muscle types and in muscle cells differentiated in vitro

Tropomyosin, present in various types of chick embryo muscle, has been characterized by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. In skeletal muscle, it was found that both the alpha and beta subunits exist as two variants, alpha 1, alpha 2 and beta 1, beta 2. The most acidic variants (alpha 2 and beta 2) could be demonstrated to be phosphorylated and, based upon the facts that 1) after phosphatase treatment alpha 2 and beta 2 co-migrate with alpha 1 and beta 1 and 2) in vitro translation of skeletal muscle mRNA produces only alpha 1 and beta 1, we suggest that alpha 2 and beta 2 merely represent the phosphorylated forms of alpha 1 and beta 1. A similar situation is found in differentiated muscle cultures in vitro. In cardiac muscle or in cardiocytes, in culture, the only subunit of tropomyosin which is present (the alpha subunit) is also phosphorylated. However, in smooth muscle, none of the tropomyosin subunits is phosphorylated. The use of various modifications in the second dimension of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis has allowed us to separate completely the alpha subunits of slow and fast muscle tropomyosin and to show that: 1) the cardiac alpha subunit is distinct from either the slow alpha or the fast alpha subunit and 2) in vitro differentiated cells synthesize a tropomyosin which, by co-migration under various conditions, is identical with fast muscle tropomyosin.