title: Gridlock, a localized heritable vascular patterning defect in the zebrafish.
abstract: We are using the zebrafish, Danio rerio, to identify genes that generate and pattern the vertebrate vasculature. We have isolated a recessive mutation, gridlockm145 (grlm145) in which blood flow to the tail is impeded by a localized vascular defect. Using a novel microangiographic method, we show that the blockade is in the anterior trunk, where the paired lateral dorsal aortae normally merge to form the single midline aorta. Arterial-venous shunts and collateral vessels develop in most mutant embryos, bypassing the lesion and reconstituting caudal blood flow. The grl defect resembles coarctation of the aorta, a human congenital cardiovascular malformation of unknown aetiology, in the location of the lesion and its consequences and in the mutants' dependence on collateral vessels for survival.
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown 02129, USA.
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Weinstein
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Stemple
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Driever
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Fishman
mesh_terms: D000792:Angiography; D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000196:embryology; D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000196:embryology; D001017:Aortic Coarctation / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics; D001775:Blood Circulation; D005808:Genes, Recessive; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*