INRA UR1067 1 article published in JoVE Biology Preparation of Primary Myogenic Precursor Cell/Myoblast Cultures from Basal Vertebrate Lineages Jacob Michael Froehlich1, Iban Seiliez2, Jean-Charles Gabillard3, Peggy R. Biga1 1Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2Nutrition Métabolisme Aquaculture, INRA UR1067, 3Laboratoire de Physiologie et Genomique des Poissons, INRA UR1037 In vitro culture systems have proven indispensible to our understanding of vertebrate myogenesis. However, much remains to be learned about nonmammalian skeletal muscle development and growth, particularly in basal taxa. An efficient and robust protocol for isolating the adult stem cells of this tissue, the myogenic precursor cells (MPCs), and maintaining their self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation in a primary culture setting allows for the identification of conserved and divergent regulatory mechanisms throughout the vertebrate lineages.