Observations on the fusion of chick embryo myoblasts in culture

Chick embryo myoblasts were grown as monolayers in culture. The formation of myotubes from myoblasts occurred over a 15 hour period in vitro. Time-lapse cinemicrography was used to study the behaviour of myoblasts during fusion and particular attention was paid to the way in which myoblasts aligned themselves. It was found that fusion tended to follow end-to-end rather than side-to-side alignment of myoblasts. This observation suggests that cell orientation is an important factor in myogenesis. Branched myotubes were frequently observed in culture; an explanation of this is offered.