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Table of Contents

December 2011

Cover

Muscle precursor fusion is blocked in zebrafish by the loss of an essential receptor pair, Jamb and Jamc.

Issue Image

Mutation of jamb results in the complete loss of myocyte fusion. Wild-type fast-twitch muscle precursors (myocytes) fuse together during embryogenesis to form syncytial muscle fibers. Loss of function of the cell surface receptor Jamb results in a potent block in fusion; instead, each myocyte forms its own mononuclear fiber. This phenotype is evident from the chevron-shaped arrangement of nuclei (red) within each myotome that arises by the central position of nuclei in each fiber (cell membranes shown in white). Confocal microscopy image of the axial musculature of jambHU3319 48 hour post-fertilization embryos labeled with mRFP (white) and DAPI (red). See Powell and Wright (e1001216).

Image Credit: Gareth Powell, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Editorial

Why ONE Is More Than 5

Catriona J. MacCallum

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Synopses

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Community Pages

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