Skeletal muscle may look uniform, but beneath the surface lies a hidden molecular map. We discovered that gene activity changes depending on where you look within the same healthy muscle. Understanding this natural organization gives us a new baseline for studying muscle-wasting diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and could help reveal why some muscle regions are more vulnerable to degeneration than others.
reNEW research
We sample different regions of the same muscle and compare which genes are switched on or off in each location. We combine this with maps of muscle fibre types and metabolites, the small molecules produced and used by cells. Together, these approaches reveal the molecular and metabolic landscape of healthy muscle, providing a reference to investigate how this organization changes during muscle degeneration and disease.
Image description
A whole mouse muscle reveals colourful territories of different muscle fibre types, exposing a hidden organization.
Credits
Clara Martinez Mir, PhD student, Geijsen lab, reNEW Leiden.
