Myoblast fusion into myotubes is one of the crucial steps of skeletal muscle development (myogenesis). The fusion is preceded by specification of a myogenic lineage (mesodermal progenitors) differentiating into myoblasts and is followed by myofiber-type specification and neuromuscular junction formation. Similarly to other processes of myogenesis, the fusion requires a very precise spatial and temporal regulation occuring both during embryonic development as well as regeneration and repair of the muscle. A plethora of genes and their products is involved in regulation of myoblast fusion and a precise multilevel interplay between them is crucial for myogenic cells to fuse. In this review, we describe both cellular events taking place during myoblast fusion (migration, adhesion, elongation, cell-cell recognition, alignment, and fusion of myoblast membranes enabling formation of myotubes) as well as recent findings on mechanisms regulating this process. Also, we present muscle disorders in humans that have been associated with defects in genes involved in regulation of myoblast fusion.

成肌细胞融合入肌管是骨骼肌发育（成肌）的关键步骤之一。融合之前是分化为成肌细胞的成肌谱系（中胚层祖细胞）的规格，然后是肌纤维类型的规格和神经肌肉接头的形成。与肌发生的其他过程相似，融合需要在胚胎发育以及肌肉再生和修复过程中进行非常精确的时空调节。大量基因及其产物参与成肌细胞融合的调控，它们之间精确的多级相互作用对于成肌细胞融合至关重要。在这篇综述中，我们描述了成肌细胞融合过程中发生的两种细胞事件（迁移，粘附，伸长，细胞间识别，排列，以及成肌细胞膜的融合使肌管得以形成），以及有关调节该过程的机制的最新发现。此外，我们介绍了人类的肌肉疾病，与参与成肌细胞融合调控的基因缺陷有关。