Fast myosin light chain expression in chicken muscles studied by in situ hybridization

We have studied the fiber type-specific expression of the fast myosin light chain isoforms LC 1f, LC 2f, and LC 3f in adult chicken muscles using in situ hybridization and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Type II (fast) fibers contain all three fast myosin light chain mRNAs; Types I and III (slow) fibers lack them. The myosin light chain patterns of two-dimensional gels from microdissected single fibers match their mRNA signals in the in situ hybridizations. The results confirm and extend previous studies on the fiber type-specific distribution of myosin light chains in chicken muscles which used specific antibodies. The quantitative ratios between protein and mRNA content were not the same for all three fast myosin light chains, however. In bulk muscle samples, as well as in single fibers, there was proportionally less LC 3f accumulated for a given mRNA concentration than LC 1f or LC 2f. Moreover, the ratio between LC 3f mRNA and protein was different in samples from muscles, indicating that LC 3f is regulated somewhat differently than LC 1f and LC 2f. In contrast to other in situ hybridization studies on the fiber type-specific localization of muscle protein mRNAs, which reported the RNAs to be located preferentially at the periphery of the fibers, we found all three fast myosin light chain mRNAs quite evenly distributed within the fiber's cross-sections, and also in the few rare fibers which showed hybridization signals several-fold higher than their surrounding counterparts. This could indicate principal differences in the intracellular localization among the mRNAs coding for various myofibrillar protein families.