Heartening news for head muscle development

Branchiomeric craniofacial muscles differ from all other skeletal muscles with respect to embryological origin, motor innervation and upstream activators of myogenesis. A series of recent studies has revealed a striking juxtaposition and overlapping genetic program of craniofacial skeletal muscle progenitor cells with a population of cells giving rise to cardiac muscle. The divergent myogenic fates of adjacent progenitor cells revealed by these data provide a new framework for the study of craniofacial myogenesis.