PUBLICATION
Mef2cb regulates late myocardial cell addition from a second heart field-like population of progenitors in zebrafish
- Authors
- Lazic, S., and Scott, I.C.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-110511-7
- Date
- 2011
- Source
- Developmental Biology 354(1): 123-133 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Lazic, Savo, Scott, Ian
- Keywords
- mef2c, heart development, second heart field, zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Animals, Genetically Modified
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/embryology
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/metabolism
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/transplantation
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/drug effects
- Heart/embryology
- In Situ Hybridization
- Mice
- Muscle Proteins/genetics*
- Muscle Proteins/metabolism
- Myocardium/cytology
- Myocardium/metabolism*
- Pyrroles/pharmacology
- Signal Transduction/drug effects
- Stem Cells/metabolism*
- Time Factors
- Transcription Factors/genetics
- Transcription Factors/metabolism
- Zebrafish/embryology
- Zebrafish/genetics*
- Zebrafish/metabolism
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics*
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
- PubMed
- 21466801 Full text @ Dev. Biol.
Citation
Lazic, S., and Scott, I.C. (2011) Mef2cb regulates late myocardial cell addition from a second heart field-like population of progenitors in zebrafish. Developmental Biology. 354(1):123-133.
Abstract
Two populations of cells, termed the first and second heart field, drive heart growth during chick and mouse development. The zebrafish has become a powerful model for vertebrate heart development, partly due to the evolutionary conservation of developmental pathways in this process. Here we provide evidence that the zebrafish possesses a conserved homolog to the murine second heart field. We developed a photoconversion assay to observe and quantify the dynamic late addition of myocardial cells to the zebrafish arterial pole. We define an extra-cardiac region immediately posterior to the arterial pole, which we term the late ventricular region. The late ventricular region has cardiogenic properties, expressing myocardial markers such as vmhc and nkx2.5, but does not express a full complement of differentiated cardiomyocyte markers, lacking myl7 expression. We show that mef2cb, a zebrafish homolog of the mouse second heart field marker Mef2c, is expressed in the late ventricular region, and is necessary for late myocardial addition to the arterial pole. FGF signaling after heart cone formation is necessary for mef2cb expression, the establishment of the late ventricular region, and late myocardial addition to the arterial pole. Our study demonstrates that zebrafish heart growth shows more similarities to murine heart growth than previously thought. Further, as congenital heart disease is often associated with defects in second heart field development, the embryological and genetic advantages of the zebrafish model can be applied to study the vertebrate second heart field.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping