Regionalisation of muscle nucleus heterogeneity in foetal skeletal muscle

Tip versus central muscle domains are transcriptionally distinct in chicken embryo limb muscles, with tip myonuclei showing a robust signaling signature during early foetal development.

• Why it matters: Adult muscle domain identities at myonuclei are known, but how this molecular heterogeneity arises during development is unclear.
• What they did: The study combined single-cell and single-nucleus RNA sequencing with in situ hybridization in chicken embryo limb muscles to compare nuclei in tip and central regions.
• The result: Early foetal stages show all myonuclei adopting either tip or central identity, immature mononucleated myogenic cells enriched in the tip, and tip myonuclei linked to signaling crosstalk with tendon fibroblasts and adjacent myogenic cells.

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