PUBLICATION
Tbx20 drives cardiac progenitor formation and cardiomyocyte proliferation in zebrafish
- Authors
- Lu, F., Langenbacher, A., Chen, J.N.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-161215-24
- Date
- 2017
- Source
- Developmental Biology 421(2): 139-148 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Chen, Jau-Nian, Langenbacher, Adam
- Keywords
- Tbx20, cardiac progenitor, cardiogenesis, cardiomyocyte proliferation, heart development, zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Zebrafish Proteins/chemistry
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism*
- Myocardium/cytology
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/cytology
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/metabolism
- Myocytes, Cardiac/cytology*
- Myocytes, Cardiac/metabolism
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- Zebrafish/genetics
- Apoptosis/genetics
- Protein Binding/genetics
- Cell Proliferation
- Cell Count
- Mutation/genetics
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
- Stem Cells/cytology*
- Stem Cells/metabolism
- Codon, Nonsense/genetics
- Organogenesis*/genetics
- Base Sequence
- DNA/metabolism
- Animals
- Transcriptional Activation/genetics
- Protein Domains
- Cloning, Molecular
- T-Box Domain Proteins/chemistry
- T-Box Domain Proteins/genetics
- T-Box Domain Proteins/metabolism*
- PubMed
- 27940156 Full text @ Dev. Biol.
Citation
Lu, F., Langenbacher, A., Chen, J.N. (2017) Tbx20 drives cardiac progenitor formation and cardiomyocyte proliferation in zebrafish. Developmental Biology. 421(2):139-148.
Abstract
Tbx20 is a T-box transcription factor that plays essential roles in the development and maintenance of the heart. Although it is expressed by cardiac progenitors in all species examined, an involvement of Tbx20 in cardiac progenitor formation in vertebrates has not been previously described. Here we report the identification of a zebrafish tbx20 mutation that results in an inactive, truncated protein lacking any functional domains. The cardiac progenitor population is strongly diminished in this mutant, leading to the formation of a small, stretched-out heart. We found that overexpression of Tbx20 results in an enlarged heart with significantly more cardiomyocytes. Interestingly, this increase in cell number is caused by both enhanced cardiac progenitor cell formation and the proliferation of differentiated cardiomyocytes, and is dependent upon the activity of Tbx20's T-box and transcription activation domains. Together, our findings highlight a previously unappreciated role for Tbx20 in promoting cardiac progenitor formation in vertebrates and reveal a novel function for its activation domain in cardiac cell proliferation during embryogenesis.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping