PUBLICATION

Hey2 regulates the size of the cardiac progenitor pool during vertebrate heart development

Authors

Gibb, N., Lazic, S., Yuan, X., Deshwar, A.R., Leslie, M., Wilson, M.D., Scott, I.C.

ID

ZDB-PUB-181026-14

Date

2018

Source

Development (Cambridge, England) 145(22): (Journal)

Registered Authors

Deshwar, Ashish, Gibb, Natalie, Lazic, Savo, Leslie, Meaghan, Scott, Ian, Yuan, Xuefei

Keywords

Cardiac progenitors, Heart development, Hey2, Second heart field, Zebrafish

MeSH Terms

Heart/embryology*
Cell Proliferation
Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors/genetics
Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors/metabolism*
Cell Count
Fibroblast Growth Factors/metabolism
Cell Lineage
Signal Transduction
Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism*
Myocardium/metabolism
Myocardium/pathology
Zebrafish/embryology*
Zebrafish/genetics
Zebrafish/metabolism*
Cardiovascular Diseases/pathology
Mutation/genetics
Myocytes, Cardiac/metabolism
Myocytes, Cardiac/pathology
Cell Size
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
Stem Cells/cytology*
Stem Cells/metabolism*
Animals

PubMed

30355727 Full text @ Development

Abstract

A key event in heart development is the timely addition of cardiac progenitor cells, defects in which can lead to congenital heart defects. However, how the balance and proportion of progenitor proliferation versus addition to the heart is regulated remains poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that Hey2 functions to regulate the dynamics of cardiac progenitor addition to the zebrafish heart. We found that the previously noted increase in myocardial cell number found in the absence of Hey2 function was due to a pronounced expansion in the size of the cardiac progenitor pool. Expression analysis and lineage tracing of hey2-expressing cells showed that hey2 is active in cardiac progenitors. Hey2 acted to limit proliferation of cardiac progenitors, prior to heart tube formation. Use of a transplantation approach demonstrated a likely cell autonomous (in cardiac progenitors) function for Hey2. Taken together, our data suggests a previously unappreciated role for Hey2 in controlling the proliferative capacity of cardiac progenitors, affecting the subsequent contribution of late-differentiating cardiac progenitors to the developing vertebrate heart.

Genes / Markers

Figures