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MUSCLE SYSTEM
SOMATIC MUSCLE
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1 Nematode Somatic Muscle
In C. elegans, the 95 rhomboid-shaped body wall muscle
cells are arranged as staggered pairs in four longitudinal bundles
located in four quadrants (MusFIG 7). Three of
these bundles (DL, DR, VR) contain 24 cells each, whereas the VL bundle
contains 23 cells. This asymmetry appears to result from a gap on the
ventral left quadrant of the embryo, slightly posterior to the gonad
primordium (Sulston and Horvitz, 1977).
Muscles are always separated from the underlying hypodermis and nervous
tissue by a thin (approximately 20 nm) basal lamina (BL). This BL
remains intact within the synaptic regions, except for NMJs made in the
nerve ring between the RIML/R
motor neurons and their target muscle arms. A typical somatic muscle
cell has three parts: the contractile filament lattice (spindle), a
noncontractile body (muscle belly) containing the nucleus and the
cytoplasm with mitochondria, and the muscle arms, slender processes
that extend to either ventral or dorsal nerve cords or the nerve ring (MusFIG 8) (see Introduction to Muscle).
Somatic muscle nuclei are oblong (ovoid), intermediate in size between
neuronal and hypodermal nuclei, and have a small, spherical nucleolus.
Viewed by differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, their
nucleoplasm appears granular in L1, but becomes smooth in L2 and
remains so throughout the rest of the development (Sulston and Horvitz, 1977).
2 Structure of Somatic Muscle
The body wall muscle of C. elegans, as in all other nematodes, is obliquely striated (MusFIG 8).
Although the filaments themselves are oriented parallel to the
longitudinal axis of the muscle cell, adjacent structural units (M
lines and DBs) are offset from one another by more than a micron,
rather than being in register as in vertebrate cross-striated muscle (Waterston, 1988; Bird and Bird, 1991).
Therefore, the observed A–I striations occur at an angle of 5–7° with
respect to the longitudinal axes of the filaments and the muscle cell,
in comparison to 90° in vertebrate cross-striated muscle (MusFIG 9 and MusTABLE 1).
This oblique arrangement of the sarcomeres is suggested to create a
more evenly distributed muscle force application over the BL and
cuticle, allowing for smooth bending of the body rather than kinking (Burr and Gans, 1998).
Each somatic muscle cell is attached basally to the underlying
hypodermis and cuticle and laterally to the neighboring muscle cells
through three distinct PAT-2/PAT-3 integrin-containing attachment complexes. These include DBs, M lines, and lateral attachment plaques.
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MusFIG 9: Organization of the myofilament lattice. (Yellow lines) Thick filaments; (black lines) thin filaments; (black dots) DB; (brown dots) M lines. A. Three-dimensional rendering of myofilament lattice as well as structure of the sarcomere. B.
Schematic illustration of a cross section of the myofilament lattice.
In the muscle cell, the sheet of filaments lies inside the muscle
membrane, which is separated from the underlying hypodermis by a 20-nm
basal lamina (BL). Cuticle, in turn, lies outside the hypodermis (Hyp).
The striations created by the thick and thin filaments are at an angle
of 5-7°to the longitudinal axes of the filaments and the muscle cell
(shown at an increased angle for emphasis; compare to C). C. Accurate surface view of myofilament structure and filament packing. Note that the distance between DBs (black dots)
on the longitudinal axis is more than 10 µm (y), whereas in the
tranverse plane they are only about 1 µm apart (x), for a ratio of about
10:1 (R.H. Waterston, pers. comm.). D. The surface
view is laterally extended to better indicate the offset of contractile
units (offset is increased for emphasis; compare with C).
E. Comparison of packing of thick (yellow dots)
and thin (black dots) filaments at transverse section among the
vertebrate skeletal muscle, the insect flight muscle, and the nematode
body wall muscle.
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MusTABLE 1: Differences between C. elegans and vertebrate striated muscle. Based on Zengel and Epstein, 1980; Waterston, 1988; Bird and Bird, 1991; Moerman and Fire, 1997.
2.1 Basal Attachments
In C. elegans, the myofilament lattice of each
contractile unit is anchored to the muscle cell membrane and adjacent BL
by DB and M lines, which are highly ordered, regularly spaced
structures that extend from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane (MusFIG 10).
DB and M lines are homologous to vertebrate focal adhesion plaques and
contain many of the cytoskeletal adaptor proteins of these
integrin-mediated attachments, including talin, PAT-6/actopaxin, PAT-4/ILK, and UNC-97/PINCH. DBs also share some components with muscle–muscle attachment plaques (Francis and Waterston, 1985).
MusFIG 10: Structure of the C. elegans body wall muscle cell. A. Low-
power TEM showing the relationship of the muscle quadrants to the
hypodermis and internal organs, transverse section. Bar, 1 µm. (Image source: [Hall] N501-N354.) B.
Sarcomeres in a higher-magnification TEM, transverse section. Each
adult hermaphrodite muscle cell may grow to be as wide as 10 sarcomeres,
which are the repeating contractile units underneath the muscle cell
plasma membrane facing the hypodermis (Hyp). Mitochondria cluster at the
boundary of the myofilament lattice and the muscle belly. The muscle
belly also contains the nucleus and other organelles. Bar, 1 µm. (Image source: [Hall] N501C.) C. Cross section of a single sarcomere. Same image as in B,
magnified. Parts of two DBs are seen at the ends of half I (thin
filament) bands on each side. A thin M line is seen to occupy the middle
of the A (thick filament) band. The membranous sacs of sarcoplasmic
reticulum (SR) align around the dense body and are also present under
the thick and thin filament bands along the muscle membrane (top right inset). The arrangements of thick and thin filaments are shown in the top insets
on the left, as both magnified TEM images and schematic drawings.
Muscle cell is separated from the hypodermis and cuticle by the basal
lamina (orange layer). Bar, 0.5 µm.
At the plasma membrane, DB and M lines are mechanically linked
to the outside cuticle through BL components and hypodermal fibrous
organelles (FOs) (MusFIG 11 and MusFIG 12) (Waterston, 1988; Francis and Waterston, 1991; Moerman and Fire, 1997; Coutu Hresko et al., 1999; Hahn and Labouesse, 2001; Cox and Hardin, 2004).
Perlecan and collagen IV concentrate in the BL underneath each DB and M
line, which align with FOs of the hypodermis. FOs are also known as
transepidermal attachments and are homologous to vertebrate
hemidesmosomes (HD) that anchor the intermediate filament network to
the plasma membrane and BL (Ding et al., 2004; Labouesse, 2006).
Like HD, they are seen as two electron-dense plaques, one on the inside
of each hypodermal plasma membrane, which are connected by cytoplasmic
intermediate filaments that span the width of the hypodermis (MusFIG 11).
FOs are restricted to the thin hypodermal regions that overlie muscle
cells, and they form concurrently with muscle development. In early
embryonic stages, they are localized into longitudinal strips; however,
during elongation of the embryo and as circumferential actin bundles
form in hypodermal cells, they change into a circumferential stripe
pattern. This pattern continues through larval and adult stages (Ding et al., 2004).
 Loss of function in components of DB and M lines frequently
results in detachment of body wall muscles from the cuticle, supporting
the hypothesis that these attachment structures function to promote
mechanical strength between the muscle and hypodermis (Gatewood and Bucher, 1997; Plenefisch et al., 2000).
2.2 Attachment Plaques (Lateral Attachments)
Similar to myotendinous junctions of vertebrate skeletal muscle, the ends of C. elegans somatic
muscle cells contain thin (actin) filament attachment plaques (the
ends of the terminal half I bands at which microfilaments are attached
to the cytoplasmic surface of the plasma membrane), which are most
similar to DBs (MusFIG 13). By means of attachment plaques, each of the muscle cells adheres tightly to adjacent muscle cells within one quadrant (Francis and Waterston, 1991; Coutu Hresko et al., 1994).
Although this may allow for some tension to be transmitted
longitudinally between cells, the bulk of the tension created by muscle
contraction is transferred to the exoskeleton/cuticle through basal
attachments that are distributed along the entire length of the cell (Francis and Waterston, 1985; Woo et al., 2004).
MusFIG 13: Structure of attachment plaques. A. Attachment plaques are localized at the end of half I bands (thin filaments), where two muscle cells appose each other (green dotted lines
indicate muscle cell membranes). Ultrastructurally, attachment plaques
resemble DBs as electron-dense finger-like structures, and they also
share some of the protein components of DBs. TEM, transverse section.
Bar, 0.5 µm. (Image source: N2Y [MRC] 689-2/794L.) B.
Schematic illustration of localization of attachment plaques between
the muscle cells of the dorsal left somatic muscle quadrant. C.
Placement of attachment plaques between two rows of a muscle quadrant. I
bands are seen as light, longitudinal bands within each cell. Plaques
are pseudocolored over an epifluorescent image taken from a transgenic
animal expressing the unc-27::GFP reporter gene. Attachment
plaques relay some tension longitudinally between cells (force b), but
the major force generated by muscle contraction is transferred to the
cuticle through basal attachments and FOs that are distributed along the
entire length of the cell (force a, which acts orthogonally to this
focal plane).
3 Development of Somatic Muscle
The body wall muscle cells are derived from D, C, AB, and MS
cell lineages. At hatching, 81 of the 95 cells are present. Fourteen
more muscle cells are generated post-embryonically from the MSapaapp
lineage (MusFIG 14 , MusFIG 15A and MusFIG 15B) (Sulston and Horvitz, 1977; Sulston et al., 1983). Of the 81 body muscles of the newly hatched larva, 80 are generated in symmetrical fashion from MS, C, and D lineages. Twenty come from the D blast cell, which generates body muscle cells exclusively, 16 from Cp, 16 from Ca, 9 from MSpp, 6 from MSpa, 9 from MSap, and 4 from MSaa (Sulston et al., 1983). The remaining cell is generated by ABprpppppa
and is one of a group of four muscles generated preanally by
ABp(l/r)pppppa lineages (the other three cells become the anal
depressor muscle, the sphincter muscle, and one of the two
stomatointestinal muscles).
MusFIG 14A-E: Development of somatic muscle. A.
A 290-minute embryo after first cell cleavage. Myoblasts arise after
the end of gastrulation and are localized adjacent to seam cells. They
have started to accumulate structural components such as myosin, actin,
vinculin, and integrin (small speckles inside myoblasts). Early myoblasts are almost spherical. The dorsal and ventral hypodermis contain some hemidesmosome components (dotted areas within the beige circle). Dorsal hypodermal cells have not yet intercalated. B.
A 350-minute embryo. Starting at the anterior end, muscle cells have
migrated to form the ventral and dorsal muscle quadrants between 300 and
350 minutes and have reached their final positions. All muscle cells
have gone through their final divisions. Muscle cells are still round
but have become polarized; myofibrillar components (colored dots within muscle cells) are clustered where the two muscle cells appose each other and the hypodermis. C.
A 420-minute embryo. Muscle cells have flattened basally against the
hypodermis and laterally against their muscle neighbors. Myofibrillar
components, basal lamina, and hypodermal hemidesmosome components have
aligned. D. A 450-minute embryo, midembryogenesis.
Muscle-muscle and muscle-hypodermis junctions and sarcomeres organize to
provide a physical linkage between cells. All types of attachments (DB,
M lines, attachment plaques) appear morphologically similar to
electron-dense plaques when they are first formed (Coutu Hresko et al., 1994; Moerman and Williams, 2006). In larval stages, DBs and M lines acquire their finger-like shapes by extending deeper into the cytoplasm. E. Schematic drawing of localization of embryonic somatic muscle cells (green) with respect to the hypodermis (beige) and seam blast cells (dark orange)
in a filleted embryo. At the stage shown, the dorsal hypodermal cells
have completed their intercalation and are organized in a single dorsal
row. (a) Anus; (d) anterior deirid; (dm) dorsal midline; (e) excretory
pore; (vm) ventral midline. Only the right-side seam blast cells and P
cells are labeled. Hypodermal cells are unlabeled and the anterior
hypodermis is omitted. (Based on Hedgecock et al., 1987.)
Myoblasts are born after the end of gastrulation at about 290 minutes of embryonic development (MusFIG 14 and MusTABLE 2).
At this stage, muscle cells lie in two lateral rows next to the seam
cells, and some muscle cells have not yet undergone their terminal
divisions. During this time, hemidesmosome components start to
accumulate in the hypodermis in a diffuse fashion and muscle cells
start accumulating muscle components diffusely. Subsequently, at about
350 minutes of development, the muscle cells migrate dorsally and
ventrally to contact the ventral and dorsal hypodermis (Coutu Hresko et al., 1994; 1999).
All muscle cells finish their divisions before assuming their final
positions. Cell–cell contact induces the components of the muscle
contractile apparatus to coalesce at the membrane near the contact
points, and fibrous organelle components (MH5 protein, intermediate
filaments) become restricted to specific regions of the hypodermis
adjacent to muscle. BL components are initially recruited to regions of
contact between muscle cells. Hypodermal myotactin then accumulates
adjacent to where the contractile apparatus is forming in the muscle.
By the twofold stage of development, muscle cells become flattened and
muscle attachment and myofilament lattice assembly begins, following
positional cues laid down in the BL and muscle cell membrane (Coutu Hresko et al., 1994; Williams and Waterston, 1994; Moerman and Williams, 2006). UNC-52/perlecan in BL initiates and is essential in the assembly of both DB and M-line components. In mutants that lack UNC-52,
all subsequent steps of sarcomere development are blocked. Then,
integrin heterodimers polarize to the basal membrane of the muscle and
aggregate into a series of organized focal contacts in each muscle
quadrant, in correspondence with the UNC-52 sites. Next, other components of the attachment complexes, such as PAT-4/ILK and PAT-6/
actopaxin, are recruited to these focal contacts. Recruitment of ILK
initiates divergence into distinct actin and myosin filament anchorage
sites as the DB and M lines, respectively (Moerman and Williams, 2006).
In the final step, actin and myosin filaments are recruited to these
proto-DB and M-line complexes, respectively, at the basal plasma
membrane. As the contacts mature, they form the highly ordered,
recognizable series of DB and M lines. Sarcomeres then become organized
into oblique striations, and the interlocking arrangement of the
rhomboid-shaped body wall muscle cells in separate bundles becomes
apparent. At the earliest stage at which individual muscle cells become
discernable, each cell is two A bands wide and the filaments are about
5 μm long (Moerman and Fire, 1997). During
this time, myotactin remains adjacent to the forming contractile
apparatus, and its organization follows the oblique striations of the
muscle. In contrast, components of fibrous organelles become organized
in circumferentially oriented bands restricted to regions where
hypodermis is adjacent to muscle. By the threefold stage (520 min after
first cleavage of the embryo at 25°C), myotactin is seen to colocalize
with fibrous organelle components in these bands (Coutu Hresko et al., 1999).
Muscle cell mass increases at each larval stage such that in the
adult, each muscle cell may have grown to be as wide as 10 A bands and
becomes approximately 100 μm long. Individual filaments in the adult are
10 μm long, and DB and M lines have also increased in size with larger
integrin clusters (Moerman and Williams, 2006).
 During their formation in the embryos, all three types of
attachment complexes look similar as electron-dense plaques. It is only
during postembryonic larval stages that DB and M lines acquire their
finger-like shapes by projecting into the cytoplasm from the plasma
membrane. For DB, this projection coincides with the addition of
α-actinin into the structure more distal from the membrane (Francis and Waterston, 1985; Barstead and Waterston, 1991; Moerman and Williams, 2006).
Mutants with severe defects in sarcomere assembly become
paralyzed with arrested elongation at the twofold stage (pat phenotype)
of embryogenesis and fail to display any flipping motions (Williams and Waterston, 1994).
4 Muscle Basal Lamina (Basement Membrane)
As in other organisms, BL are thin sheets of specialized
extracellular matrices that contain type IV collagen, laminin, nidogen,
SPARC, and perlecan in C. elegans. Somatic muscle quadrants in
the body run inside tubes of BL, which separates them from the
pseudocoelomic cavity and underlying hypodermis and nervous tissue. The
neuronal processes that run from the ventral side to the dorsal side
(commissures) extend under this BL and between muscle and hypodermis.
In the head, the BL is extended around the muscle arm plate and
separates the muscle arms from the nerve ring. This extension of BL
terminates onto the cylinder of sheet-like processes of the GLR cells, anterior to the nerve ring (White et al., 1986).
5 Innervation of Somatic Muscle
Depending on the basis of their synaptic input, somatic muscles
fall into three groups: (1) The anteriormost four somatic muscle cells
in each quadrant (head muscles) are innervated by motor neurons in the
nerve ring, (2) the next four cells in each quadrant (neck muscles)
receive dual innervation from motor neurons of the nerve ring and the
ventral nerve cord, and (3) the remainder (body muscles) are
exclusively innervated by ventral cord motor neurons (White et al., 1986; Bird and Bird, 1991).
Such innervation involves chemical synapses (NMJs) at the muscle
plate. The muscle cells in each row of a muscle quadrant are
electrically coupled to their neighbors through gap junctions, most
often occurring between the muscle arms. Also, the muscle arms from the
neck muscles make extensive gap junctions with the head mesodermal
cell, which may provide electrical coupling between the dorsal and
ventral muscles in this region (White, 1988). (For detailed description see Gap Junctions).
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5.1 Body
Body muscles are innervated by the cholinergic, stimulatory A- and B-type motor neurons (VA, VB, DA, DB, AS) and inhibitory, γ-aminobutyric acid-transmitting (GABAergic) D-type motor neurons (VD, DD) of the ventral nerve cord. (For a detailed description of innervation of body muscles, see Nervous System) They may also receive modulatory inputs from neuron processes in the sublateral cords (J.S. Duerr et al., unpubl.).
5.2 Head and Neck
Although the body is limited to making dorsoventral bends, the
nematode’s head is capable of lateral motions as well. These more
refined motions are believed to be due to more complex wiring of the
head and neck muscles at the nerve ring, permitting differential
activation of muscles in adjacent bands and even in adjacent rows in
one quadrant (White et al., 1986). Head motor neuron classes include fourfold symmetric RME, SMB, and URA neurons; sixfold symmetric IL1 neurons; and bilaterally symmetric RIM, RMF, RMG, RMH, and RIV neurons (White et al., 1986). RMD and SMD
motor neurons are suggested to be the cross inhibitors in the nerve
ring, although the pattern of cross-inhibition is probably more complex
in the head compared to the body. Both classes of putative
cross-inhibitory motor neurons receive extensive synaptic input from
interneurons, unlike D-type body neurons, which are only post-synaptic
to ventral cord motor neurons at NMJs. The major source of synaptic
input to RMD and SMD neurons comes from RIA interneurons, which themselves receive prominent input from RIB interneurons. RME
neurons have been shown to limit the extent of head deflection during
foraging, because head movements during foraging become loopy when RMEs are ablated (MusFIG 16) (McIntire et al., 1993; Jorgensen, 2005). RMEs are post-synaptic to stretch-receptive SMBs,
and they make inhibitory NMJs onto the contralateral anterior head
muscles that may have a role in restricting the level of contraction of
the ventral or dorsal group of muscles during head bending (Jorgensen, 2005).
6 List of Bodywall Muscle Cells (for cell name/number correspondence see below and MusFig15A&B; cell numbering is according to Hedgecock et al., 1987 and differs from Wormbase) (PE=postembryonic)
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This chapter should be cited as: Altun, Z.F. and Hall, D.H. 2009. Muscle system, somatic muscle. In WormAtlas. doi:10.3908/wormatlas.1.7
Edited for the web by Laura A. Herndon. Last revision: May 31, 2013. |
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