Du, S.J., S.H. Devoto, M. Westerfield, and R.T. Moon (1997) Positive and Negative Regulation of Muscle Cell Identity by Members of the hedgehog and TGF-β Gene Families. The Journal of cell biology. 139(1):145-156.
ABSTRACT
We have examined whether the development of embryonic muscle fiber type is regulated by competing influences between Hedgehog and TGF-beta signals, as previously shown for development of neuronal cell identity in the neural tube. We found that ectopic expression of Hedgehogs or inhibition of protein kinase A in zebrafish embryos induces slow muscle precursors throughout the somite but muscle pioneer cells only in the middle of the somite. Ectopic expression in the notochord of Dorsalin-1, a member of the TGF-beta superfamily, inhibits the formation of muscle pioneer cells, demonstrating that TGF-beta signals can antagonize the induction of muscle pioneer cells by Hedgehog. We propose that a Hedgehog signal first induces the formation of slow muscle precursor cells, and subsequent Hedgehog and TGF-beta signals exert competing positive and negative influences on the development of muscle pioneer cells.