Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying skeletal muscle organisation

The vertebrate skeletal muscle is a well-organized tissue in which the primitive muscle fibres are all parallel and aligned along the antero-posterior axis of the embryo. We have recently demonstrated that the polarization and coordinated orientation of muscle fibres in the developing chick embryo is regulated by Wnt11, upstream of the Planar Cell Polarity pathway (non canonical Wnt signaling). The aims of this project is to expand our previous analysis by analyzing the molecular mechanisms that translate the positional information conveyed by Wnt11 into a polarized growth by elongating muscle fibres. This will shed light on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control the concerted behaviour of cells within developing tissues.