PUBLICATION
Cadherin2 (N-cadherin) plays an essential role in zebrafish cardiovascular development
- Authors
- Bagatto, B., Francl, J., Liu, B., and Liu, Q.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-060616-1
- Date
- 2006
- Source
- BMC Developmental Biology 6: 23 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Liu, Qin
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Cadherins/genetics
- Cadherins/physiology*
- Cardiovascular System/growth & development*
- Embryo, Nonmammalian
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
- Heart/growth & development
- Mutation
- Myocardium/metabolism
- Zebrafish/physiology
- Zebrafish Proteins/physiology*
- PubMed
- 16719917 Full text @ BMC Dev. Biol.
Citation
Bagatto, B., Francl, J., Liu, B., and Liu, Q. (2006) Cadherin2 (N-cadherin) plays an essential role in zebrafish cardiovascular development. BMC Developmental Biology. 6:23.
Abstract
Cadherins are cell surface adhesion molecules that play important roles in development of vertebrate tissues and organs. We studied cadherin2 expression in developing zebrafish heart using in situ hybridization and immunocytochemical methods and we found that cadherin2 was strongly expressed by the myocardium of the embryonic zebrafish. To gain insight into the role of cadherin2 in the formation and function of the heart, we analyzed cardiac differentiation and performance in a cadherin2 mutant, glass onion (glo). We found that the cadherin2 mutant had enlarged pericardial cavity, disorganized atrium and ventricle, and reduced expression of a ventricular specific marker vmhc. Individual myocardiocytes in the glo mutant embryos become round shaped and loosely aggregated. In vivo measurements of cardiac performance reveal that the mutant heart has significantly reduced heart rate, stroke volume and cardiac output compared to control embryos. Formation of the embryonic vascular system in the glo mutants is also affected. Our results suggest that cadherin2 plays an essential role in zebrafish cardiovascular development.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping