The developing mouse tongue provides a model for discrete patterns of morphogenesis during short periods of embryonic development. Occipital somite-derived myogenic cells interact with cranial neural crest-derived ecto-mesenchymal cells to form the musculature of the tongue. The biochemical signals that control close range autocrine and/or paracrine signaling processes required to establish the fast-twitch complex tongue musculature are not known. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that desmin, epidermal growth factor (EGF), and transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF alpha) and their cognate receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr), are co-expressed during tongue myogenesis and define specific developmental stages of tongue muscle cell differentiation. To test this hypothesis, we performed studies to analyze the timing, position, and concentration of desmin, TGF alpha, EGF, and EGFr from embryonic day 9 (E9) through birth in Swiss Webster mouse tongue development. Desmin, TGF alpha, EGF, and EGFr co-localized to cells of myogenic lineage in the four occipital somites and subsequently in myoblasts and myotubes from E9 through E17. By newborn stage, desmin is localized to discrete regions in myofibers corresponding to Z-line delimiting sarcomeres, and A-band within sarcomeres; immunostaining for desmin, TGF alpha, and EGF persisted in differentiated myotubes and striated skeletal muscle. Desmin increased from 0.01% at E11 to 0.51% of the total protein by E17 and at birth. Concomitantly, the patterns and increases in TGF alpha, EGF, and EGFr showed significant increases during the same developmental period. The temporal and positional co-localization of TGF alpha, EGF, and EGFr support the hypothesis that autocrine and paracrine regulation of desmin by actions of growth factor ligand and receptor defines critical stages of tongue myogenesis.