PUBLICATION
Synergistic and independent roles for Nodal and FGF in zebrafish CPC migration and asymmetric heart morphogenesis
- Authors
- Gonzalez, V., Grant, M.G., Suzuki, M., Christophers, B., Williams, J.R., Burdine, R.D.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-250915-11
- Date
- 2025
- Source
- Development (Cambridge, England) : (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Burdine, Rebecca
- Keywords
- Cardiac jogging, Cardiac looping, Congenital heart defects, Left-right asymmetry, Zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Morphogenesis*/physiology
- Heart*/embryology
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
- Fibroblast Growth Factors*/genetics
- Fibroblast Growth Factors*/metabolism
- Nodal Protein*/genetics
- Nodal Protein*/metabolism
- Signal Transduction
- Animals
- Myocardium/cytology
- Myocardium/metabolism
- Stem Cells*/cytology
- Stem Cells*/metabolism
- Zebrafish*/embryology
- Zebrafish*/genetics
- Zebrafish*/metabolism
- Actin Cytoskeleton/metabolism
- Zebrafish Proteins*/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins*/metabolism
- Cell Movement*/physiology
- Cell Differentiation
- Organogenesis
- PubMed
- 40948237 Full text @ Development
Citation
Gonzalez, V., Grant, M.G., Suzuki, M., Christophers, B., Williams, J.R., Burdine, R.D. (2025) Synergistic and independent roles for Nodal and FGF in zebrafish CPC migration and asymmetric heart morphogenesis. Development (Cambridge, England). :.
Abstract
Asymmetric development of the vertebrate heart is driven by a complex sequence of morphogenetic cell movements, coordinated through precise interpretation of signaling cues by the heart primordia. Here, we show that Nodal signaling functions synergistically with FGF to stimulate the migration of cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) during cardiac jogging-the first morphological asymmetry observed in zebrafish heart development. While Nodal directs the asymmetric migration of CPCs, we find FGF signaling to be dispensable for this asymmetry, suggesting that FGF plays a permissive rather than instructive role. We further demonstrate that Nodal signaling induces asymmetries in actin cytoskeletal dynamics that correlate with the directional migration of CPCs, while FGF does not influence this actin asymmetry. In addition to influencing jogging, FGF and Nodal synergize to ensure proper heart looping. We also provide evidence that FGF contributes to heart looping by promoting the differentiation of the second heart field. Together, these findings offer insight into how the spatiotemporal dynamics of signaling pathways regulate the cellular behaviors driving organ morphogenesis.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping