Muscle morphogenesis in the absence of myogenic cells

Experimental evidence indicates, that the myogenic cells themselves are not responsible for the muscle pattern formation. We report on a chance observation that reveals that muscle pattern formation can occur even in the absence of myogenic cells. Epiblastic cells from a quail embryo in the primitive streak stage were implanted into the wing bud of a chick embryo. The grafted quail cells developed into mononucleate, fibroblast-like cells that formed the muscle belly of the extensor medius longus muscle. This showed essentially normal form and topography as revealed by computer-aided 3D-reconstruction. This finding shows, that the formation of muscles does not depend on the presence of myogenic cells.