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Background  The mammalian esophageal musculature is unique in that it makes a transition from smooth to skeletal muscle, with most of this process occurring after birth. In order to better understand the mechanisms that control esophageal musculature development, we investigated the roles in this process of the paired box transcription factor, PAX7, a principal regulator of skeletal myogenic progenitor cells. Previous studies showed that  Pax7  is important for determining the esophageal muscle composition.    Results  We characterized the postnatal development of the esophageal musculature in  Pax7   −/−   mice by analyzing morphology, muscle composition, and the expression of markers of myogenesis, cell proliferation, and apoptosis.  Pax7   −/−   mice displayed megaesophagus with a severe defect in the postnatal developmental process whereby esophageal smooth muscle is replaced by skeletal muscle.  Pax7   −/−   esophagi have substantially reduced skeletal muscle, most likely due to diminished proliferation and premature differentiation of skeletal muscle precursor cells. This impaired the proximal-to-distal progression of skeletal myogenesis and indirectly affected the patterning of the smooth muscle-containing portion of the esophageal musculature.    Conclusions  Postnatal patterning of the esophageal musculature appears to require robust, PAX7-dependent cell proliferation to drive the proximal-to-distal progression of skeletal myogenesis. This process in turn influences distal smooth muscle morphogenesis and development of the mature pattern of the esophageal musculature.    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13395-015-0068-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

PAX7 is required for patterning the esophageal musculature