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Updated: Aug 22, 2025
In Vivo Imaging of Muscle-tendon Morphogenesis in Drosophila Pupae
Published on: February 6, 2018
Three-dimensional mapping reveals heterochronic development of the neuromuscular system in postnatal mouse skeletal
Jianyi Xu1,2, Jingtan Zhu1,2, Yusha Li1,2
1Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics - MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics - Advanced Biomedical Imaging Facility, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430074, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
Abstract:
The development of the neuromuscular system, including muscle growth and intramuscular neural development, in addition to central nervous system maturation, determines motor ability improvement. Motor development occurs asynchronously from cephalic to caudal. However, whether the structural development of different muscles is heterochronic is unclear. Here, based on the characteristics of motor behavior in postnatal mice, we examined the 3D structural features of the neuromuscular system in different muscles by combining tissue clearing with optical imaging techniques. Quantitative analyses of the structural data and related mRNA expression revealed that there was continued myofiber hyperplasia of the forelimb and hindlimb muscles until around postnatal day 3 (P3) and P6, respectively, as well as continued axonal arborization and neuromuscular junction formation until around P3 and P9, respectively; feature alterations of the cervical muscle ended at birth. Such structural heterochrony of muscles in different body parts corresponds to their motor function. Structural data on the neuromuscular system of neonatal muscles provide a 3D perspective in the understanding of the structural status during motor development.
