Shooting Messengers

In a hurry for a train, stretchy regions in our leg muscles called sarcomeres contract and expand to pull our bones along. Zooming in further on this mouse muscle, scientists follow molecules on their own journey – messenger RNAs (highlighted in red) are carrying genetic information, used as templates to build proteins. A technique called RNA FISH, spots RNAs travelling from the muscle fibre’s nuclei (where they’re made) to z-disks (blue) at the boundaries between sarcomeres along a muscle myofibre. The RNAs zip along the muscle’s network of microtubules (green) like tube or metro lines (although a billion times smaller). Scientists see patterns of different RNAs at the z-disks, clustering like cosmopolitan crowds of commuters at train stations – perhaps as a way to spread a variety of useful proteins along our muscles, which may be disrupted in myopathies.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

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A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Lance T. Denes, Chase P. Kelley & Eric T. Wang
• Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, Center for NeuroGenetics, Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, October 2021