A strategy to discover new organizers identifies a putative heart organizer

• Published in: Nature communications 2016-08, Vol.7 (1), p.12656-12656, Article 12656
• Main Authors: Anderson, Claire, Khan, Mohsin A. F., Wong, Frances, Solovieva, Tatiana, Oliveira, Nidia M. M., Baldock, Richard A., Tickle, Cheryll, Burt, Dave W., Stern, Claudio D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 13/106; 13/107; 14; 14/63; 38/39; 38/61; 42; 631/136/756/1456; 631/80/86/2370; 64; 692/4019/592/2726; Ablation; Animals; Biomarkers - metabolism; Body Patterning; Chickens; Embryos; Endoderm; Endoderm - embryology; Endoderm - metabolism; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Heart; Heart - embryology; Heart Atria - embryology; Heart Atria - metabolism; Heart Ventricles - embryology; Heart Ventricles - metabolism; Humanities and Social Sciences; Intestinal Mucosa - metabolism; Intestine; Intestines - embryology; Mesoderm; Mesoderm - embryology; Mesoderm - metabolism; Models, Biological; multidisciplinary; Organizers, Embryonic - metabolism; Quail; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Transcriptome - genetics; Transplantation; Ventricle
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12656

Organizers are regions of the embryo that can both induce new fates and impart pattern on other regions. So far, surprisingly few organizers have been discovered, considering the number of patterned tissue types generated during development. This may be because their discovery has relied on transplantation and ablation experiments. Here we describe a new approach, using chick embryos, to discover organizers based on a common gene expression signature, and use it to uncover the anterior intestinal portal (AIP) endoderm as a putative heart organizer. We show that the AIP can induce cardiac identity from non-cardiac mesoderm and that it can pattern this by specifying ventricular and suppressing atrial regional identity. We also uncover some of the signals responsible. The method holds promise as a tool to discover other novel organizers acting during development. Organizers are regions in the embryo that induce cell fate and impart pattern on neighbouring regions. Here, the authors search for new organizers based on a common gene signature, and show that the Anterior Intestinal Portal endoderm induces cardiac identity, specifies ventricle and inhibits atrial character.