Gridlock, a localized heritable vascular patterning defect in the zebrafish.
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.
Weinstein
B M
BM
Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown 02129, USA.
Stemple
D L
DL
Driever
W
W
Fishman
M C
MC
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*